Hans-Dietrich Genscher: A Life of Longing for Stability

John Kornblum

AGI Trustee

John Kornblum is a senior counselor at the international law firm Noerr LLP and a former U.S. ambassador to Germany. He is a member of the AGI Board of Trustees.

The resounding response from the press to the death of Hans-Dietrich Genscher reminds us of how much German political equilibrium depends on the existence of central, idealized, larger-than-life figures.  Mr. Genscher’s career typifies German voters’ need for stability through long periods in office.  Germans also seem to have a great need to keep important political figures relevant after they have left office and, no matter how controversial they were in life, to idealize them in death.  Continue reading at Handelsblatt.

Ambassador John Kornblum is a former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and an AGI Trustee.