Robert Albert Bauer (1910 - 2003)

Robert Albert Bauer, retired Foreign Service Officer, anti-Nazi radio broadcaster, author and lecturer died in Washington, D.C., on September 27, 2003 at the age of 93.

Mr. Bauer was born in Austria. He earned an M.A. in economics and an LL.D. from Austrian universities in the early 1930s, as well as an MA in Arab studies from the American University in Cairo in 1967. He practiced law in Austria in the mid 1930s. After the 1938 Anschluß he fled his Nazi-occupied homeland and joined the Free Austria movement in Prague. After Czechoslovakia came under Nazi rule, he became editor-in-chief of the Austrian Freedom radio station, broadcasting from Normandy in 1940. He immigrated to the U.S. after France fell in 1940 and worked as a broadcaster for a German-language radio station in Cincinnati.

Mr. Bauer joined Voice of America (VOA) in 1942. Two years later, he was named chief of the German radio section of the American Broadcasting Station in Europe. He continued broadcasting after the war, eventually becoming acting chief of VOA’s European division. In 1953 he joined the United States Information Agency (USIA) as a radio program manager. His diplomatic career took him to U.S. missions in Tehran, Paris, New Delhi and Cairo. During his tours of duty, he served as first secretary for cultural affairs and as counsellor for public affairs.

Retiring from the service in 1972, he lectured on international affairs at Kenyon College in Ohio as well as at American University in Washington, D.C., and consulted at the Brookings Institute. He edited and wrote several books including The U.S. and World Affairs, The Austrian Solution, and The Threat of International Terrorism.