Henry Kissinger Parents: Meet Paula Stern Kissinger and Louis Kissinger.

Henry Kissinger is an American diplomat and political scientist. He is the son of Paula Stern Kissinger and Louis Kissinger.

His mother Paula was a homemaker and his father Louis Kissinger was a schoolteacher. His family was Jewish and German.

Henry Kissinger and his family fled Germany in 1938, when he was 15 years old, as a result of Nazi persecution. During Nazi rule, Hitler Youth gangs harassed and beat Kissinger and his friends on a regular basis.

Henry Kissinger occasionally defied Nazi racial laws by sneaking into football stadiums to watch matches, which often resulted in beatings from security guards. As a result of the Nazis’ anti-Semitic laws, Kissinger was denied admission to the Gymnasium, and his father was fired from his teaching position. The family visited London briefly before arriving in New York City.

He excelled academically after arriving in the United States, graduating from Harvard College in 1950, where he studied under William Yandell Elliott. In 1951 and 1954, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

During the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, he served as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 under controversial circumstances for his efforts in negotiating a cease-fire in Vietnam.