caption politics age children religion birth_place status nationality birth_date gender spouse image article_title education name occupation
david binder at 81 center-left davidbinder portrait.jpg julia , andrea , alena society of friends london , england retired american 22 february 1931 male dr. helga wagner -lrb- 1959 -- present -rrb- davidbinder portrait.jpg david binder -lrb- journalist -rrb-
 harvard 1953 ; university of cologne , graduate study , 1953 university -- 54 , a.b. -lrb- cum laude -rrb- , david binder journalist , author
david binder -lrb- journalist -rrb-

david binder -lrb- born february 22 , 1931 -rrb- is an american journalist and author .
he was a reporter for the new york times from 1961 to 2004 serving as a foreign correspondent in berlin in 1961 where he reported on the building of the berlin wall ; in the balkans , based in belgrade 1963 -- 1966 ; in germany based in bonn and later berlin , 1967 to 1973 .
during the latter period he reported on the gradual rapprochement between east and west germany , and on the prague spring of 1968 .
he was then transferred to washington , d.c as a diplomatic correspondent , later as serving as the bureau 's assistant news editor , and again as a reporter .
he was repeatedly sent abroad as a special correspondent for the times to report on the decline of the soviet bloc in 1987 , the fall of the berlin wall in 1989 , the collapse of the warsaw pact and the end of the communist regimes in the german democratic republic , romania , albania and yugoslavia in 1990-1992 .
he traveled to the balkans to report on the civil wars that brought about the dissolution of yugoslavia -lrb- 1990-1995 -rrb- and the post-communist regimes in bulgaria and romania .
he also reported on the unification of west and east germany .
in 2000-2001 he again went to the balkans to report on the burgeoning sex trade and drug smuggling in the region for msnbc .
early in his career he worked briefly as a science reporter for the times , returning more than three decades later to reporting on wildlife biology .
over the years he also contributed to other publications including the reporter , the nation , the new republic , foreign policy -lrb- published in washington -rrb- , politika -lrb- a daily published in belgrade -rrb- , vreme , -lrb- a weekly published in belgrade -rrb- weltwoche -lrb- swiss weekly published in zurich -rrb- , der spiegel , -lrb- a german weekly published in hamburg -rrb- stern , -lrb- a german magazine -lrb- published in hamburg -rrb- neues deutschland , -lrb- a daily published in berlin -rrb- , blaetter fuer deutsche und internationale politik -lrb- published in bonn -rrb- and the wilson quarterly -lrb- published in washington -rrb- .
in 1970 he was elected president of the verein der auslaendischen presse -lrb- foreign press association -rrb- of germany .
in 1989 he was appointed to the editorial advisory board of the newly created mediterranean quarterly .
in its first issue he published an article entitled the end of the bloc , saying the soviet union 's east european empire was `` falling apart before our eyes . ''
this appeared before the opening of the berlin wall in november 1989 .
