In this autobiography, Walther Leisler Kiep speaks frankly about a life at the centre of power: as an independent politician and treasurer of the governing CDU party from 1970 to 1991, who did not shrink from conflict with party leaders Helmut Kohl and Franz Josef Strauss; as Minister of Finance in Lower Saxony; as a longtime member of the Volkswagen Supervisory board; and as an ambassador for German-American relations, and confidant of several US presidents.