Madeleine Albright

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Madeleine Korbel Albright , née Marie Jana Körbelová (later Korbelová ) (born May 15, 1937 in Prague ), is an American politician ( Democratic Party ). She was Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001 and was the first woman to hold the office.

Life

It was not until 1996, at the age of 58, that Albright learned from a journalist immediately before taking office as US Secretary of State that she came from a Jewish family and that 25 of her relatives, including three of her grandparents, were murdered in the Holocaust. Why her parents, who were secular Jews , never spoke to her about it remained a mystery to her.

Her father Josef Körbel was a Czechoslovakian diplomat, later a professor of politics at the University of Denver in the USA. In 1939, ten days after the German Wehrmacht marched into Prague , the immediate family fled to London .

In 1945 Josef Körbel (from there: Korbel ) returned with his family to Prague after the war on the side of Edvard Beneš 's government-in-exile with high hopes. In the autumn of 1945 he was appointed Czechoslovak ambassador to Belgrade , Yugoslavia , and moved there with his family. In 1948, after the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the family managed to obtain political asylum in the United States , of which Marie Jana Korbelová became a citizen in 1957. Her father also became a US citizen in the same year.

She was married to journalist Joseph Medill Patterson Albright from 1959 until their divorce in 1982. The couple have three daughters, twins Alice and Anne (born June 17, 1961) and Katherine (born June 5, 1967).

From 1959, Madeleine Albright studied political science at Wellesley College and law and political science at Columbia University , where she received her doctorate in 1976. She was a faculty member in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington from 1982 to 1992 .

In addition to Czech and English, Albright also speaks French and can also communicate well in Russian and Polish. Her brooches , which are said to have occasionally been used to convey political messages, are her trademark .

Albright endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2008 and 2016 Democratic presidential primary .

Political career 1976-2001

She has been involved in Democratic Party politics since the 1970s .

From 1976 to 1978 she was an adviser to US Senator Edmund Muskie , from 1978 to 1981 she served on the United States National Security Council and on President Jimmy Carter 's staff . In the presidential campaigns of the 1980s, she advised Democratic candidate Walter Mondale in 1984 and Michael Dukakis in 1987–88 . From 1993 she represented the United States as Ambassador to the UN . On January 23, 1997, Albright was inaugurated as the 64th Secretary of State of the United States, appointed by President Bill Clinton . She remained in the Clinton cabinet until the end of his term in 2001 . Madeleine Albright was the first woman to hold this office.

Václav Havel , a friend of Albright's, suggested that she become his successor as Czech President.

Activity since 2001

After retiring as Secretary of State, Albright founded the political consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington DC, which provides policy and strategy advice.

Madeleine Albright teaches at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and is Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), a pro-Democrat, tax-funded agency dedicated to promoting democracy in developing countries, headquartered in Washington DC

In 2005, Albright had a brief guest appearance on the hit television series Gilmore Girls .

In a 1996 television interview, when asked if the US embargo on Iraq, which killed half a million Iraqi children, was worth the price, Albright replied, "It's worth the price." In her autobiography she later described this answer as a "political error".

In October 2012, a confrontation with members of the Czech organization Přátelé Srbů na Kosovu (Friends of the Serbs in Kosovo ) broke out during a book signing in Prague 's Palác Knih Luxor bookstore. Albright described these members of the organization as "disgusting Serbs" after they asked her to sign a poster with photos of Serbia scarred by NATO bombing . Albright was a supporter of air raids on Serbia at the time.

In 2014 Albright had a brief guest appearance in the TV series " Madam Secretary ", in 2015 in " Parks and Recreation "

In 2016, Albright was scheduled to deliver the Scripps College graduation speech . 28 professors signed a letter of protest and many students announced that they would stay away from the celebration if Albright gave the speech. This reaction was justified with Albright's politically controversial image; according to the students, she was a war criminal. Despite continued protests, Albright delivered her speech.

Albright made several appearances at promotional events for the network marketing company Herbalife and lobbied internationally for the company. Her company did not respond to a query from the Los Angeles Times about her lobbying activities.

In June 2018, Albright described President Donald Trump as the least democratic president in modern U.S. history.

Fonts (selection)

  • Madam Secretary. The Autobiography . Translation Holger Fliessbach, Angela Schumitz. Bertelsmann, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-5700-0729-7 .
  • The Mighty and the Almighty. God, America, and World Politics . Translation Reinhard Kreissl, Maria Zybak. Droemer Knaur, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-4262-7399-9 .
  • America You Can Do Better: What a Good President Should and Shouldn't Do. Translation Reinhard Kreissl. Droemer Knaur, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-426-27457-6 .
  • Winter in Prague: Remembering My Wartime Childhood . Translation Norbert Juraschitz. Settlers, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-88680-988-2 .
  • Fascism: A Warning . Translation Bernhard Jendricke, Thomas Wollermann. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-8321-8361-5 .
  • Hell and Other Destinations: A Twenty-First Century Autobiography . Translation Bernhard Jendricke, Thomas Wollermann. DuMont publishing house, Cologne 2020, ISBN 978-3-8321-8399-8 .

Awards (selection)

literature

  • David Jackson: Madeleine Albright. In: Edward S. Mihalkanin (ed.): American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell . Greenwood Publishing 2004, ISBN 978-0-313-30828-4 , pp. 34–40.

web links

Commons : Madeleine Albright  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. Susanne Mayer: The burden , in: weekly newspaper Die Zeit , Hamburg, No. 18, April 25, 2013, p. 49
  2. Forum in the New York Times
  3. Archived copy ( Memento of 4 February 2016 at the Internet Archive )
  4. sueddeutsche.de: We are big and powerful and therefore indispensable. Retrieved May 16, 2013 .
  5. Feelings? Problems are solved with reason ( Memento of August 24, 2018 in the Internet Archive ), Tages-Anzeiger, August 11, 2018
  6. [1]
  7. ^ a b c IMDB: Madeleine Albright
  8. [2]
  9. Pratele Srbu na Kosovu. (2012). Madeleine Albright in Prague: "Disgusting Serbs!" . YouTube: pratelesrbunakosovu. Retrieved October 28, 2012. 1:00.
  10. http://claremontintindependent.com/28-scripps-professors-will-protest-madeleine-albrights-commencement-speech/
  11. FTC moves against Herbalife, but leaves a question: Why is this company still allowed in business? , Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2016
  12. Madeline Albright is freaking out over her role as Herbalife cheerleader , Michelle Celarier, New York Post, April 17, 2014
  13. The White House: President Obama Names Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients (April 26, 2012, accessed May 30, 2012)