Editing Hans-Dietrich Genscher (section)

=== Early life ===
Genscher was born on 21 March 1927 in [[Reideburg]] (Province of Saxony Anhalt), now a part of [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]], in what later became [[East Germany]]. He was the son of Hilda Kreime and Kurt Genscher.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sR4Ch1dMe8IC&q=%22Kurt+Genscher+and+the+late+Hilda+Kreime%22&pg=PA597|title=The International Who's Who 2004|isbn=9781857432176|last1=Publications|first1=Europa|year=2003|publisher=Psychology Press }}</ref> His father, a lawyer, died when Genscher was nine years old.<ref name="Günsche-2016">{{cite news|last1=Günsche|first1=Karl-Ludwig|title=Zum Tod von Hans-Dietrich Genscher: Marathonmann der deutschen Politik|url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/hans-dietrich-genscher-ist-tot-nachruf-a-1085018.html|work=Spiegel Online|access-date=1 April 2016|language=de|date=1 April 2016}}</ref> In 1943, he was drafted to serve as a member of the Air Force Support Personnel (''[[Luftwaffenhelfer]]'') at the age of 16. At age 17, close to the end of the [[Second World War|war]], he and his fellow soldiers became members of the [[Nazi Party]] due to a collective application (''Sammelantrag'') by his [[German Army|Wehrmacht]] unit. He later said he was unaware of it at the time.<ref>''[https://www.welt.de/kultur/article989531/Von_Grass_bis_Genscher_Wer_noch_in_der_NSDAP_war.html Zeitgeschichte: Von Grass bis Genscher – Wer noch in der NSDAP war]. ''[[Die Welt]], 1 July 2007.</ref>

Late in the war, Genscher was deployed as a soldier in General [[Walther Wenck]]'s [[12th Army (Wehrmacht)|12th Army]], which ostensibly was directed to relieve the siege of Berlin. After the German surrender he was an American and British [[prisoner of war]], but was released after two months.<ref>Ulrich Herbert, Universität Freiburg, Darmstädter Echo, Samstag, 13 June 2015, p. 5.</ref> Following World War II, he studied law and economics at the universities of [[Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg|Halle]] and [[Leipzig]] (1946–1949) and joined the East German [[Liberal Democratic Party of Germany|Liberal Democratic Party]] (LDPD) in 1946.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Dictionary of Political Biography|year=1998|publisher=OUP|location=Oxford|page=184|url=https://www.questia.com/read/34683530/a-dictionary-of-political-biography|author=Dennis Kavanagh|access-date=1 September 2013|chapter=Genscher, Hans-Dietrich|archive-date=27 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027014837/https://www.gale.com/databases/questia|url-status=dead}}</ref>