Willy Brandt

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Willy Brandt
Chancellor of Germany
In office October 21, 1969 – May 7, 1974
Preceded by	Kurt Georg Kiesinger
Succeeded by	Helmut Schmidt
Born	December 18, 1913
Died	October 8, 1992 aged 78
Political party	SPD
Occupation	Worker, Journalist, Lecturer, Activist
Religion	Protestant [1]

Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm (December 18, 1913 - October 8, 1992), was a German politician, Chancellor of West Germany 1969 – 1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1964 – 1987.

Because resistance from the opposition kept much of Brandt's domestic program from being implemented, his most important legacy is the Ostpolitik, a policy aimed at improving relations with East Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union. This policy caused considerable controversy in West Germany, but won Brandt the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.

Brandt was forced to resign as Chancellor in 1974 after it became known that one of his closest aides had been working for the East German secret service (Stasi). This became one of the biggest political scandals in postwar West German history.

Early life, the war

Willy Brandt was born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm in Lübeck, Germany to Martha Frahm, an unwed mother who worked as a cashier for a department store. His father was an accountant from Hamburg by the name of John Möller, whom Brandt never met.

He became an apprentice at the shipbroker and ship's agent F.H. Bertling. He joined the "Socialist Youth" in 1929 and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1930. He left the SPD to join the more left wing Socialist Workers Party (SAP), which was allied to the POUM in Spain and the ILP in Britain. In 1933, using his connections with the port and its ships from the time he had been apprentice, he left Germany for Norway on a ship to escape Nazi persecution. It was at this time that he adopted the pseudonym Willy Brandt to avoid detection by Nazi agents. In 1934, he took part in the founding of the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations, and was elected to its Secretariat.

Brandt visited Germany from September to December 1936, disguised as a Norwegian student named Gunnar Gaasland. In 1937, during the Civil War, he worked in Spain as a journalist. In 1938, the German government revoked his citizenship, so he applied for Norwegian citizenship. In 1940, he was arrested in Norway by occupying German forces, but he was not identified because he wore a Norwegian uniform. On his release, he escaped to neutral Sweden. In August 1940, he became a Norwegian citizen, receiving his passport from the Norwegian embassy in Stockholm, where he lived until the end of the war. Willy Brandt returned to Sweden to lecture on 1 December, 1940 at Bommersvik college about the problems experienced by the social democrats in Nazi Germany and the occupied countries at the start of World War II.

Mayor of West Berlin, Foreign Minister of West Germany

Brandt with President John F. Kennedy, March 1961.

In late 1946, Brandt returned to Berlin, working for the Norwegian government.

In 1948, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in Berlin. He became a German citizen again and formally adopted his pseudonym as his legal name.

Outspoken against the Soviet repression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and against Khrushchev's 1958 proposal that Berlin receive the status of a "free city", he was considered to belong to the right wing of his party, an assessment that would later change.

Brandt was supported by the powerful publisher Axel Springer. From October 3 1957 to 1966, he was Mayor of West Berlin, a particularly stressful time for the city with the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Brandt became chairman of the SPD in 1964, a post he retained until 1987.

Brandt was the SPD candidate for Chancellor in 1961, but lost to Konrad Adenauer's conservative CDU. In 1965, he ran again, and lost to the popular Ludwig Erhard. But Erhard's government was short-lived, and, in 1966, a grand coalition between the SPD and CDU was formed; Brandt became foreign minister and vice chancellor.

Chancellor of West Germany

After the elections of 1969, again with Brandt as lead candidate, the SPD became stronger and after three weeks of negotiation formed a coalition government with the small liberal Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP). Brandt was elected Chancellor.

Foreign policy

File:Willy Brandt Time.jpg

Brandt was named TIME magazine's Person of the Year for 1970.

As chancellor, Brandt gained more scope to develop his Ostpolitik. He was active in creating a degree of rapprochement with East Germany and in improving relations with the Soviet Union, Poland and other Eastern Bloc countries.

A seminal moment came in December 1970 with the famous Warschauer Kniefall in which Brandt, apparently spontaneously, knelt down at the monument to victims of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The uprising occurred during the military occupation of Poland and the monument is to those killed by German troops who suppressed the uprising and deported remaining ghetto residents to concentration camps.

Brandt was named TIME magazine's Man of the Year for 1970.

In 1971, Brandt received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in improving relations with East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union.

In West Germany, Brandt's Ostpolitik was extremely controversial, dividing the populace into two camps: one side, most notably the victims of Stalinist ethnic cleansing from Historical Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe, loudly voiced their opposition, calling the policy "illegal" and "high treason", while others applauded Brandt's move as aiming at "Wandel durch Annäherung" ("change through rapprochement", i.e., encouraging change through a policy of engagement rather than isolation). Supporters of Brandt claim his Ostpolitik did help to break down the Eastern Bloc's siege mentality and increase the awareness of the contradictions in their brand of Socialism, which—together with other events—eventually led to its downfall. The Ostpolitik was strongly opposed by the conservative parties and many social democrats as well.

Willy Brandt, Richard Nixon

Domestic policies

Political and social changes of the 1960s that paved the way for Brandt's chancellorship

West Germany in the late 1960s was shaken by student disturbances and a general 'change of the times' that not all Germans were willing to accept or approve. What had seemed a stable, peaceful nation, happy with its outcome of the "Wirtschaftswunder" ("economic miracle") turned out to be a deeply conservative, bourgeois, and insecure people with a lot of citizens unable to face—let alone cope with—their Nazi past. It was mostly the students who accused the 'parental generation' of its Nazi past and of a way of life that was considered outdated and old-fashioned. Sign of the times was that—much to their parents' horror—a lot of students started to share a flat, went to demonstrations (where they were often sprayed off the street by police water-cannons), advocated and practiced promiscuous behaviour, declared themselves radical left wing, wanted the Americans to withdraw from Vietnam and labelled Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara to be their favourite heroes.

How Brandt was able to win over the students

Brandt's predecessor, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, had been a member of the Nazi party. Brandt had been a victim of Nazi terror; no wider a gap could have existed between the two chancellors. Unlike Brandt, Kiesinger was unable to understand the students' political demands. For him, they were nothing but "a shameful crowd of long-haired drop-outs who needed a bath and someone to discipline them". The students (with a sizable number of intellectuals backing them up) turned their parents' values and virtues upside down and questioned the West German society in general seeking social, legal and political reforms. On the domestic field, Brandt pursued exactly this, a course of social, legal and political reforms. In his first parliament speech after his election, Brandt signalled that he had comprehended what made the students go out and demonstrate against authority. In the speech he claimed his political course of reforms ending it with the famous summarizing words "Wir wollen mehr Demokratie wagen" (lit.: "Let's dare more democracy"). This made him - and the SPD, too - extremely popular among most students and other young West Germans who dreamed of a country quite different from the one their parents had built after the war. However, many of Brandt's reforms met the resistance of state governments (dominated by CDU/CSU). The spirit of reformist optimism was cut short by the 1973 oil crisis. Brandt's domestic policy has been criticized of having caused many of West Germany's economic problems.

Crisis in 1972

Because of these controversies, several members of his coalition switched sides. In May 1972, the opposition CDU believed it had the majority in the Bundestag and demanded a vote on a motion of no confidence (Misstrauensvotum). Had this motion passed Rainer Barzel would have replaced Brandt as Chancellor. To everyone's surprise, the motion failed. The margin was extremely narrow (two votes) and much later it was revealed that one or perhaps two members of the CDU had been paid off by the Stasi of East Germany to vote for Brandt.

Though Brandt had remained Chancellor, he had lost his majority. Subsequent iniatives in parliament, most notably on the budget, failed. Because of this stalemate, the Bundestag was dissolved and new elections were called. Brandt's Ostpolitik as well as his reformist domestic policies were popular with parts of the young generation and led his SPD party to its best-ever federal election result in late 1972.

During the 1972 campaign, many popular West German artists, intellectuals, writers, actors and professors supported Brandt and the SPD. Among them were Günter Grass, Walter Jens, and even the football (soccer) player Paul Breitner. Public endorsements of the SPD via advertisements and, more recently, internet pages have become a widespread phenomenon since then.

To counter any notions about being sympathetic to Communism or soft on left-wing extremists, Brandt implemented tough legislation that barred "radicals" from public service ("Radikalenerlass").

The Guillaume affair and Brandt's resignation

Around 1973, West German security organizations received information that one of Brandt's personal assistants, Günter Guillaume, was a spy for the East German state. Brandt was asked to continue work as usual, and he agreed, even taking a private vacation with Guillaume. Guillaume was arrested on April 24, 1974, and the West German government blamed Brandt for having a spy in his party. At the same time, some revelations about Brandt's private life (he had had some short-lived affairs with prostitutes) appeared in newspapers. Brandt contemplated suicide and even drafted a suicide note. He chose instead to accept responsibility for Guillaume, and resigned on May 7, 1974.

Guillaume had been a spy for East Germany, supervised by Markus Wolf, head of the Main Intelligence Administration of the East German Ministry for State Security. Wolf stated after the reunification that the resignation of Brandt had never been intended, and that the affair had been one of the biggest mistakes of the East German secret service. This was led 1957-1989 by Erich Mielke, an old follower of Stalin and Beria.

Brandt was succeeded as Chancellor by the Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt, who unlike Brandt belonged to the right wing of his party. For the rest of his life, Brandt remained suspicious that his fellow social democrat and longtime rival Herbert Wehner had been scheming for his downfall, but evidence for this seems scant.

The story of Brandt and Guillaume is told in the play Democracy by Michael Frayn. The play follows Brandt's career from his election as the first left-of-center chancellor in West Germany in 40 years to his downfall at the hands of his trusted assistant Guillaume. The play examines Guillaume's dual identity as trusted personal assistant to the West German chancellor and Stasi spy, and Guillaume's conflict as his duty to Brandt's enemies clashes with his genuine love and admiration for the chancellor.

Later life

After his term as Chancellor, Brandt remained head of his party, the SPD, until 1987 and retained his seat in the Bundestag. Brandt was head of the Socialist International from 1976 to 1992, which he called a worldparty of peace, working to enlarge that organization beyond the borders of Europe. In 1977, he was appointed chair of the Independent Commission for International Developmental Issues, which produced a report, in 1980, calling for drastic changes in the world's attitude to development in the Third World. This became known as the Brandt Report.

In 1975, it was widely feared that Portugal would fall to Communism; Brandt supported the democratic socialist party of Soares that won a major victory, thus keeping Portugal capitalist. He also supported Felipe González's newly legal socialist party in Spain after Franco's death.

In October 1979 he met the dissident Rudolf Bahro, who had written The Alternative, he and his supporters were attacked by the state security (Stasi)/Erich Mielke for that, the theoretical foundation of a left opposition to the ruling parties, promoting new and changed parties, what is now discussed as "change from within". Brandt had asked for Bahros release and welcomed his theories, the debate as interesting and fruitful for the own movement, party.

In late 1989, Brandt became one of the first leftist leaders in West Germany to publicly favour reunification over some sort of two-state federation. His public statement "Now grows together what belongs together" was much quoted in those days.

One of Brandt's last public appearances was flying to Baghdad, to free some Western hostages held by Saddam Hussein, after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. He died of colon cancer at his home in Unkel, a town on the Rhine, and was given the first German state funeral since 1929. He was buried at the cemetery at Zehlendorf in Berlin.

Brandt was a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1983, and Honorary Chairman of the SPD from 1987 until his death in 1992. When the SPD moved its headquarters from Bonn back to Berlin in the mid-1990s, the new headquarters was named the "Willy Brandt Haus".

As a somewhat remarkable memorial, the private German language secondary school in Warsaw is named after Willy Brandt.

Family

From 1941 until 1948 Brandt was married to Anna Carlotta Thorkildsen (daughter of a Norwegian father and a German-American mother). They had a daughter, Nina (1940). After Brandt and Thorkildsen were divorced in 1946, he married the Norwegian Rut Hansen in 1948. Hansen and Brandt had three sons: Peter (1948), Lars (1951) and Matthias (1961). Today Peter is a historian, Lars is a painter and Matthias is an actor. After 32 years of marriage, Brandt was divorced from Rut in 1980 and from the day they were divorced they never met again. On December 9, 1983, Brandt married Brigitte Seebacher (b. 1946). Rut Brandt died in Berlin on July 28, 2006.

Matthias as Günter Guillaume

In 2003, Matthias Brandt took the part of Guillaume in the film Im Schatten der Macht (lit.: In the Shadow of Power) by German filmmaker Oliver Storz. The film deals with the Guillaume-affair and Brandt's resignation. Matthias Brandt caused a minor controversy in Germany when it was publicized that he would take the part of the man who betrayed his father and made him resign in 1974. Earlier that year - when the Brandts and the Guillaumes took a vacation to Norway together - it was Matthias, then twelve years old, who was the first to discover that Guillaume and his wife 'were typing mysterious things on type writers the whole night through'.

Lars writing about his father

In early 2006, Lars Brandt published a biography about his father called "Andenken" ("Remembrance"). The book has been the subject of some controversy. Some see it as a loving memory of a father-son-relationship. Others label the biography a ruthless statement of a son who still thinks he had never had a father who really loved him.

Brandt's first cabinet, 21 October 1969 - 14 December 1972

• Willy Brandt (SPD) - Chancellor
• Walter Scheel (FDP) - Vice Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Helmut Schmidt (SPD) - Minister of Defense
• Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) - Minister of the Interior
• Alex Möller (SPD) - Minister of Finance
• Gerhard Jahn (SPD) - Minister of Justice
• Karl Schiller (SPD) - Minister of Economics
• Walter Arendt (SPD) - Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
• Josef Ertl (FDP) - Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Forestry
• Georg Leber (SPD) - Minister of Transport, Posts, and Communications
• Lauritz Lauritzen (SPD) - Minister of Construction
• Käte Strobel (SPD) - Minister of Youth, Family, and Health
• Hans Leussink - Minister of Education and Science
• Erhard Eppler (SPD) - Minister of Economic Cooperation
• Horst Ehmke (SPD) - Minister of Special Tasks
• Egon Franke (SPD) - Minister of Intra-German Relations

Changes

• 13 May 1971 - Karl Schiller (SPD) succeeds Möller as Minister of Finance, remaining also Minister of Economics
• 15 March 1972 - Klaus von Dohnanyi (SPD) succeeds Leussink as Minister of Education and Science.
• 7 July 1972 - Helmut Schmidt (SPD) succeeds Schiller as Minister of Finance and Economics. Georg Leber (SPD) succeeds Schmidt as Minister of Defense. Lauritz Lauritzen (SPD) succeeds Leber as Minister of Transport, Posts, and Communications, remaining also Minister of Construction.

Works (selected)

Brandt, Willy, "Mein Weg nach Berlin" ("My Path to Berlin"), München : Kindler Verlag, 1960, OCLC: 2843936 . Retrieved 12 June 2007

Brandt, Willy, "Draußen. Schriften während der Emigration." ("Outside: Writings during the Emigration")1966

Brandt, Willy, 1968, "Friedenspolitik in Europa" ("The Politics of Peace in Europe"),Samleren, 1970, ISBN:9788756800549. Retrieved 12 June 2007

Brandt, Willy, "Begegnungen und Einsichten 1960-1975" ("Encounters and Insights 1960-1975"), Hoffmann und Campe; 1.-30. Tsd edition, 1976,ISBN: 3-455-08979-8. Retrieved 12 June 2007

Brandt, Willy, "Links und frei. Mein Weg 1930-1950" ("Left and Free: My Path 1930-1950"), München : Knaur, 1982, ISBN:9783426037225. Retrieved 12 June 2007

Brandt, Willy, 1986,"Der organisierte Wahnsinn" ("Organized Lunacy"),Frankfurt am Main ; Olten ; Wien : Büchergilde Gutenberg, 1987,ISBN: 9783763233199. Retrieved 12 June 2007

Brandt, Willy,1989 "Erinnerungen" ("Memories") ISBN 3-549-07353-4

Brandt, Willy, "Erinnerungen : mit den "Notizen zum Fall G"", München: Ullstein, 2003, ISBN:978354836497. Retrieved 12 June 2007

2002f, Berliner Ausgabe, Werkauswahl, ed. for Bundeskanzler Willy Brandt Stiftung by Helga Grebing, Gregor Schöllgen and Heinrich August Winkler, 10 volumes, Dietz Verlag, Bonn 2002f, Collected Writings, ISBN 3-8012-0305-0.

Brandt, Willy, et.al, "Berliner Ausgabe", Bonn : J.H.W. Dietz, [2000]-<2006>.ISBN 3-8012-0305-0. Retrieved 12 June 2007

Biographies

• (German) Brandt, Lars "Andenken", Munchen, (ISBN 3-446-20710-4). Retrieved 12 June 2007
• (German) Merseburger, Peter, "Willy Brandt", Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt GmbH,West Germany, September 13, 2002, (ISBN 3-421-05328-6). Retrieved 12 June 2007
• Marshall, Barbara, "Willy Brandt, A Political Biography", Palgrave Macmillan, February 15, 1997, (ISBN 0-312-16438-6). Retrieved 12 June 2007
• (Italian)Meola, Nestore di, "Willy Brandt" raccontato da Klaus Lindenberg, Soveria Mannelli (Catanzaro): Rubbettino, 1998,(ISBN 88-7284-712-5). Retrieved 12 June 2007

External links

• (German)Nobel Prize Lecture. Retrieved 12 June 2007
• Biography of Willy Brandt
• Willy Brandt International Airport. Retrieved 12 June 2007
• Ubben Lecture at DePauw University. Retrieved 12 June 2007
• Adam Sneyd, "Brandt Commission", in Globalization and Autonomy Online Compendium, edited by William D. Coleman and Nancy Johnson. Retrieved 12 June 2007

Political offices
Preceded by: Otto Suhr	Mayor of Berlin 1957-1966	Succeeded by: Heinrich Albertz
Preceded by: Erich Ollenhauer	Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964-1987	Succeeded by: Hans-Jochen Vogel
Preceded by: Gerhard Schröder	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1966-1969	Succeeded by: Walter Scheel
Preceded by: Kurt Georg Kiesinger	Chancellor of Germany 1969-1974	Succeeded by: Helmut Schmidt
Preceded by: Bruno Pittermann	President of the Socialist International 1976-1992	Succeeded by: Pierre Mauroy
Preceded by: Hans-Christoph Seebohm	Vice Chancellor of Germany 1966-1969	Succeeded by: Walter Scheel

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