Norbert L. Grunwald, an Austrian-born U.S. Army veteran who was taken prisoner by the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge and later worked in American intelligence and for a brokerage in Baltimore, died of complications of prostate cancer Friday at his Baltimore home. He was 83 years old.

Mr. Grunwald was born in Vienna, Austria. When he was 13, Nazi forces took over his country, and he fled alone and on foot to Poland.

On the first night of his journey he was picked up by the Nazis, said his wife, Louise.

"They couldn't believe a little guy was doing this alone, and they released him," she said.

He made his way to Krakow, where relatives sent him on to England. A cousin placed an ad in The Times of London asking for a family to take in a young boy. A Quaker family in Essex, England, answered the ad and cared for him for three years. He then came to Baltimore in 1940, where he was reunited with his family, which had escaped Austria through Italy.

Mr. Grunwald graduated from City College less than a year later and went to work at Bethlehem Steel as a welder. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army, with the aim of earning American citizenship, and served in Europe during World War II. During the Battle of the Bulge he was taken prisoner by the Nazis he had fled just a few years earlier.

He was sent to the Stalag Luft 7 prisoner-of-war camp in Bankau, Poland, then forced to march to France, Mrs. Grunwald said. Five months later, in the spring of 1945, his camp was liberated by American forces. He weighed 90 pounds and spent six months in a London hospital before being transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. He was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds suffered during his service.

After returning from the war, he worked for the Central Intelligence Group, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, for nine years. Meanwhile, he earned an undergraduate degree in Russian economics from the Johns Hopkins University and a master's degree in Russian economics from American University in Washington.

After a three-year stint in Frankfurt, Germany with the CIA, he and his wife, whom he married in 1952, returned to Baltimore. Mr. Grunwald entered the brokerage business and was a vice president at Gruntal & Co.

A former client and longtime friend, Elsbeth L. Bothe, a retired city Circuit Court judge, said Mr. Grunwald had a successful career and devoted much of his earnings to charity. He founded Man Alive, a methadone treatment program.

"He never claimed a lot of credit for the things he did," Mrs. Bothe said.

He was a board member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Associated Jewish Charities.

He didn't dwell on a heart attack he suffered at age 58, his wife said.

"It was just an inconvenience as far as he was concerned," she said. "He continued to play tennis, sail, swim and play golf."

Mr. Grunwald was also a talented flutist, she said.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. today at Sol Levinson Funeral Home 8900 Reisterstown Road.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two sons, Carey A. Grunwald, of Washington and Edward L. Grunwald of Atlanta; a daughter, Gale L. Grunwald of Atlanta; and one grandson.

allison.connolly@baltsun.com chris.emery@baltsun.com.