David Binder (journalist)

David Binder
Born	(1931-02-22) February 22, 1931 London, England
Status	Retired
Nationality	American
Education	Harvard University, A.B.(cum laude), 1953; University of Cologne, graduate study, 1953–54
Occupation(s)	Journalist, Author
Spouse	Helga Wagner (1959–present)
Children	Julia, Andrea, Alena

David Binder (born February 22, 1931) is an American journalist and author. He was a reporter for the New York Times from 1961 to 2004, serving as Berlin correspondent in 1961; Balkans correspondent 1963–1966; Germany correspondent 1967–1973; and Washington D.C. correspondent 1973–2004. While in Germany, he reported on the building of the Berlin wall in 1961, the Soviet bloc invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He also reported on the collapse of The Warsaw Pact, as well as the end of the Communist regimes in East Germany, Romania, Albania and Yugoslavia in 1990-1991. He has contributed to other publications, including The Reporter, The Nation, The New Republic, Foreign Policy, Politika, Vreme, Weltewoche, Der Spiegel, Stern,. He has also written two books on German history, and chapters of New York Times books: America's Race to the Moon, 1962; About Men, 1987; The Science Times Book of Birds; 1997 Science Times Book of Fish, 1997; Scientists at W, 2000. He is professionally interested in small nations. In 2001 he was awarded by the Romanian Cultural Foundation "for exceptional contributions" involving "major contributions for the better knowledge of Romanian culture and civilization in the world." He is retired, but is serving on the editorial advisory board of the Mediterranean Quarterly.

Early life

Binder was born on February 22, 1931, in London, England along with his twin sister Deborah, to American parents Carroll (a newspaperman), and Dorothy (Walton) Binder. He was raised in Highland Park, Illinois Chicago until the age of 13, when he attended George School, a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard, before going to the University of Cologne to study on Fulbright Fellowship. He worked an assistant in American literature at the Salzburg Seminar in Austria summer of 1953.

Career

• Carbondale Free Press-Southern-Illinoisan (summer, 1951)
• Lousiville Times, Reporter (1954–56)
• Institute of Current World Affairs, fellow in Germany, (1957–59)
• Daily Mail,(London) Reporter in Berlin, (1959–60)
• Minneapolis Tribune, copy editor, (1960–61)
• The New York Times, Reporter, (1961–2004),
• President of The Foreign Press Association of Germany,(1970)

Books

• Berlin: East and West in Pictures, 1963 ISBN 978-0806910185
• The Other German: Willy Brandt's Life and Times, 1976 ISBN 978-0915220090
• Children of a New Fatherland. Germany's Post-War Right-Wing Politics (Introduction), 1999 ISBN 978-1860644580
• Forward to Media Cleansing, Dirty Reporting: Journalism and Tragedy in Yugoslavia, 2005 ISBN 978-1882383306