Europe and the Soviet Union
Henry A. Grunwald: From Austria to American Diplomacy
Fled Vienna after the Anschluss and returned decades later as U.S. ambassador to Austria.
- Fled
- Austria
- Status
- Fled persecution
- Arrived in the U.S.
- about 1940
- Service
- U.S. Ambassador to Austria (1988 to 1990)
- Region
- Europe and the Soviet Union
Henry Grunwald's Jewish family fled Vienna after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938. Their escape took them through several countries before they reached New York. Accounts differ on the year of arrival.
He started at Time magazine as a copyboy and rose to editor-in-chief of Time Inc. In late 1987 President Reagan sent him back to Vienna as U.S. Ambassador to Austria, the country he had fled as a boy.
Read the history behind this story on the Nazi Germany and Austria page, or browse all the diplomats.