Manfred Wörner (1934-1994), the former West German minister of defense, was appointed secretary-general of NATO and chairman of the North Atlantic Council in July 1988. He had to steer the Atlantic Alliance through times of formidable changes in East-West relations after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

Manfred Wörner was born in Stuttgart, (West) Germany, on September 24, 1934. In 1953 he finished high school and went on to study law at the Universities of Heidelberg, Paris, and Munich. In 1957 he passed his first final examination in law in Munich, and in 1961 his second final examination in Stuttgart. The same year he received a Ph.D. in international law from the University of Munich. His dissertation was entitled "The Stationing of Foreign Forces in Friendly Countries."

In 1956 Wörner joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a right-of-center German political party, after having been a member...