Werner Salinger was born in Berlin, Germany, on 5 April, 1932.  Ten months later Adolph Hitler came to power, appointed by then German President Hindenburg. Salinger experienced Kristallnacht from the central Berlin apartment that also housed his orthodontist (one of the world’s first) mother’s dental practice.

Salinger has a BA in political science from Goddard College. He is a nine year veteran of the USAF, stationed in Germany for 3.5 years at the height of the Cold War as a USAF Intelligence officer, (NCO), interrogating German POW’s returning from the Soviet Union and defectors from countries east of the Iron Curtain. He is married to the daughter of a German soldier who served in Hitler’s Nazi army and they have four very adult children, six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.