Walter Kissinger, corporate chief executive, philanthropist and more low-key brother of Henry – obituary
Asked why he had lost all trace of his brother’s thick German accent, Walter replied: ‘I am the Kissinger who listens’
3 June 2021 • 3:20pm
Walter Kissinger, right, and his brother Henry Kissinger visiting their native town of Fürth, Bavaria, in 2004
Credit: Action Press/Shutterstock
Walter Kissinger, who has died aged 96, was a successful businessman and philanthropist – and younger brother of the former US secretary of state Doctor Henry Kissinger.
Though he once featured in a list of embarrassing political siblings alongside Billy Carter and Piers Corbyn, his gaffes were mild by comparison. Most famously, when asked by a journalist why he had no trace of his brother’s heavy German accent, he replied: “I am the Kissinger who listens.”
Walter Kissinger, Businessman and Brother of Henry, Dies at 96
Walter shed his Bavarian accent, while Henry notably did not. Asked why he lost his, Walter told interviewers, “Because I am the Kissinger who listens.”
Walter Kissinger, left, with his brother, Henry, in 2019. Walter wrote his undergraduate thesis on China, and two decades later Henry would help establish relations between China and the United States. Henry Kissinger said that he and his brother often discussed China and that “it would be hard to say who influenced whom in these conversations, but we had an impact on each other.”Credit.via Kissinger family