TWIG - Hollywood director Billy Wilder received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for "outstanding service in the world of film." German Ambassador to the United States Jürgen Chrobog presented the order to Wilder in Los Angeles on March 10.

Born in Krakow and raised in Austria, Billy Wilder worked as a journalist in Vienna and Berlin before immigrating to the United States in 1933. In Hollywood, Wilder made a name for himself first as screenwriter and then as a director. His diverse body of work includes such classics as The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Some Like It Hot (1959), and The Apartment (1960).