Visionary was foreign to him – his office as foreign Minister, filled Kinkel slowly and quietly. Important is the close contact to the United States, even for personal reasons was him.
Klaus Kinkel was not a loud man, neither in the office nor in retirement. The Swabians from Metzingen, actually, a career civil servant, was certainly not placed in the cradle, that he should be foreign Minister. For five years he was Vice-Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
in the Midst of the Nazi reign of Kinkel was born and experienced as a child, parts of the destruction, the end of the war and the American occupation forces that shaped his future attitude.
“I was born in 1936. I have not yet eaten from the tin dish at the school lunch. I’ve seen what it means, that you have brought us the Marshall Plan. I’ve seen together in my foreign policy time with Genscher, and Kohl, what does it mean – since the time of the division of Germany was that the Americans were in favor of reunification.”
And they were also later left its mark on him, for example, in meetings with Henry Kissinger, the German-born former U.S. Secretary of state.
Klaus Kinkel died: obituary for the former Federal Minister of foreign Affairs
tagesschau 12:00 PM, 05.03.2019, Sebastian Deliga, SWR
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