Wolfgang Leonhard

Wolfgang Leonhard was a German political author and historian of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and Communism. A German Communist whose family had fled Hitler's Germany and who was educated in the Soviet Union, after World War II Leonhard became one of the founders and leaders of the German Democratic Republic until he became disillusioned and fled in 1949, first defecting to Yugoslavia and then moving to West Germany in 1950 and later to the United Kingdom. In 1956 he moved to the United States, where he was a popular and influential professor at Yale University from 1966 to 1987, teaching the history of communism and the Soviet Union, topics about which he wrote several books. After the Cold War ended, he returned to Germany.

16 April 1921

Born on the same birth date (16 April 1921): Peter Ustinov

Born on the same birth day (16 April): Alison Ramsay • Dusty Springfield • Ed Townsend • Ernst Bakker • Freddie Ljungberg • John Millington Synge • Leó Weiner • Luol Deng • Martin Lawrence • Night Train Lane • Peter Garrett • Reg Alcock • Roy Hamilton • T Lavitz • Tabinshwehti • Vicar (cartoonist) • Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Born in the same month (April 1921): Anna Lee Aldred • Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith • Christopher Hewett • Cleto Bellucci • Franco Corelli • Jan Novák (composer) • Orunamamu • Robert Karvelas • Rowland Evans • Simin Daneshvar • Thomas Schelling