Speaker A
In most countries, jackets and ties have long replaced capes and crowns, but the strict regulations of official events still remain.
A detailed biography of Willy Brandt, his anti-fascist stance, political career, and impact on Germany's reunification and healing.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Willy Brandt’s kneeling in Warsaw was a powerful act of repentance and reconciliation for Germany.
- His political career was marked by a commitment to democratic socialism and peaceful reform.
- Brandt’s leadership helped shift German politics towards dialogue and cooperation, especially with East Germany.
- Despite political challenges, Brandt’s legacy endures as a symbol of moral integrity and national healing.
- The video highlights the importance of conscience and dialogue in political leadership.
What the video covers
- Willy Brandt, born Herbert Frahm, was a German anti-fascist and politician who became the fourth Federal Chancellor of Germany.
- His famous act of kneeling at the Warsaw Ghetto memorial in 1970 symbolized Germany's repentance for Nazi crimes and marked a turning point in German spiritual healing.
- Brandt was deeply influenced by his socialist upbringing and early involvement in the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
- He fought against the Nazi regime, went into exile in Norway, and evolved his political views towards democratic socialism.
- Brandt witnessed the failures of leftist divisions in Spain's civil war and advocated for dialogue and cooperation among political opponents.
- He returned to Germany to assess the anti-Hitler movement and later led the SPD to political victories.
- As Chancellor, Brandt pursued reforms and sought peaceful dialogue with East Germany despite setbacks like the Berlin Wall.
- He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts in Ostpolitik and reconciliation.
- Brandt resigned in 1974 following a political scandal but remained a respected figure in German politics.
- Today, he is remembered as a symbol of conscience-driven leadership and a key figure in Germany’s post-war recovery and reunification dreams.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to Willy Brandt and the Warsaw Ghetto Kneeling
- 01:18Brandt’s Early Life and Socialist Roots
- 03:50Resistance Against Nazis and Exile in Norway
- 06:45Political Views and Experiences in Spain and Germany
- 10:09Post-War Career and Democratic Socialism
- 18:22Chancellorship and Ostpolitik
- 24:22Nobel Peace Prize and Later Political Challenges
- 28:42Legacy and Public Perception of Willy Brandt
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Before a president or a prime minister goes to a meeting with his foreign colleague, a protocol service must carefully calculate his every step.
Speaker A
And every gesture! That’s why an unplanned incident that occurred in Warsaw on December 7, 1970, went down in history forever.
Speaker A
During his visit to Poland, the chancellor of West Germany, Willy Brandt, was supposed to lay a wreath at the memorial to the heroes of the Warsaw ghetto, as was provided by diplomatic regulations.
Speaker A
But after the official part of the ceremony had finished, Willy Brandt unexpectedly kneeled, right on the cold tiling near the monument.
Speaker A
A Soviet reporter, Igor Yavliansky, recalled: “The German chancellor was on his knees for a long time in silence, deep in his thoughts.
Speaker A
There were plenty of people around. They too froze, stunned by this spontaneous and deep act of repentance.”
Speaker A
At home, people initially did not appreciate Brandt's act. Half of West Germans thought it was excessive and inappropriate.
Speaker A
But the chancellor didn’t do it for his own sake. He was an antifascist and fought against Hitler’s regime, so his conscience was clear.
Speaker A
The “kneeling in Warsaw” was the beginning of the spiritual healing for the entire German people.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt loved Germany above all. As time passed, the Germans realized: everything that Brandt did during his time as federal chancellor, he did for Germany.
Speaker A
Today we will talk about an impressionable and sensitive man who led his country after winning a fierce political struggle.
Speaker A
He sincerely dreamed of the reunification of Germany and was always guided by the interests of his compatriots.
Speaker A
And he turned all existing ideas about how to defend national interests. The hero of today's video is a journalist, thinker, the fourth Federal Chancellor of Germany, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm, also known as Willy Brandt.
Speaker A
Herbert Frahm was born on the 18th of December, 1913, in a worker’s suburb of Lübeck.
Speaker A
His mother, Martha Frahm, worked as a seller and was an activist in a labor union movement.
Speaker A
She read a lot and spoke literary German, which was rare in poor proletarian districts.
Speaker A
The child never knew his father. His grandfather, who returned from WWI, Ludwig Frahm, replaced his father for him.
Speaker A
He was a member of the Social Democrats and instilled in his grandson the aspiration for a just structure of society.
Speaker A
Main childhood books of the young Herbert were the works of a Marxist, August Bebel, one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD.
Speaker A
Already in childhood, Herbert dreamt of equality, of protection of rights, freedoms, and human dignity.
Speaker A
At the gymnasium, Herbert was the best student and got along well with his classmates.
Speaker A
But even among friends, he felt lonely. They were interested in cars and sports, but Herbert was passionate about society.
Speaker A
Peers jokingly called him a "politician." As the Nazis gained popularity in the Weimar Republic, Herbert paid less attention to his studies and more to skirmishes with members of the Hitler Youth, and sometimes it came to violent street fights.
Speaker A
At the age of eleven, Herbert joined the youth organization of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. At the age of sixteen, he was already accepted into the adult SPD.
Speaker A
Accepted contrary to the charter, according to which a candidate for the party must be of age.
Speaker A
It is worth noting that the young politician regularly published articles in newspapers from the age of thirteen.
Speaker A
On the eve of Hitler's rise to power, the German left parties underestimated the Nazis and spent most of their resources on competition with each other.
Speaker A
The socialists did not get along with the communists, and they could not agree among themselves.
Speaker A
The "Reds" drowned each other, while the "Browns" were rapidly gaining strength. Young Herbert actively participated in conflicts between the German left.
Speaker A
In the future, today's hero led the SPD and led it to victory. But shortly before the Nazis took power, Herbert managed to seriously quarrel with his party members and joined the newly formed SAPD — Socialist Workers’ Party.
Speaker A
It is there where Herbert gained the experience of underground struggle against the new totalitarian regime, as well as his new name — Willy Brandt.
Speaker A
Arrests of members of the Socialist Workers’ Party began in the very first weeks of the Nazi dictatorship.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt distributed leaflets and tried to reach out to his compatriots. In Lübeck, he even managed to organize a strike and a rally.
Speaker A
But it was like beating out fire with a glass of water. Soon after, Willy Brandt learned that his name was already on the list to be sent to a concentration camp.
Speaker A
He decided not to sacrifice himself and moved to Oslo, the capital of Norway, through Denmark.
Speaker A
The escape could have finished before it started: his former comrade who joined the Nazis recognized Brandt’s face.
Speaker A
But he decided to look the other way. In Oslo, twenty-year-old Willy Brandt amazingly quickly learned the language and began publishing.
Speaker A
He rapidly gained popularity in Norway as a journalist and a publicist. At first, in his incisive articles, he was hard on both the Nazis and his former fellow party members from SPD.
Speaker A
However, life in Norway had gradually changed and softened Willy Brandt’s views. His views were becoming less radical, less maximalist, and dogmatic.
Speaker A
Not so long ago, Brandt actively participated in every internal quarrel between socialists and considered it a matter of principle.
Speaker A
But in the second half of the '30s, he concluded: “For normal people, life is not based on various ‘-isms,’ but on food, sleep, playing football, their garden, and other beautiful things.”
Speaker A
Even though Norway was a monarchy, in Norwegian society Willy Brandt saw the example of a true nation of citizens.
Speaker A
The state cared about the life standards of its citizens: in the mid-'30s, important social reforms began.
Speaker A
Brandt closely followed the Norwegian Labor Party, which came to power. It turned out that the left can reach their goals not only through revolutionary struggle, but by conducting a reasonable and not aggressive politics of reforms.
Speaker A
By the way, the Workers Party still has 28% in the Parliament of Norway. Willy Brandt was inspired by the spirit of cooperation and dialogue that was permanent in Norwegian society.
Speaker A
Even parliamentarians were seated at meetings so that the Social Democrats, liberals, conservatives, and communists all mixed up.
Speaker A
Political opponents did not consider each other enemies, but heatedly discussed how to improve the lives of fellow citizens.
Speaker A
In 1936, Willy Brandt, with a Norwegian passport in the name of Gunnar Gaasland, moved to Berlin.
Speaker A
At that moment, Brandt was still a member of the German Socialist Workers’ Party. His task in Germany was to assess the possibilities for the local anti-Hitler movement.
Speaker A
The result of the assessment was discouraging: the illegal opposition had no chance of success.
Speaker A
In 1937, Willy Brandt traveled as a journalist to Spain, engulfed in civil war. He called this war “the first open battle against fascism.”
Speaker A
But in Spain, Brandt saw even more uncompromising quarreling between the left than the ones he himself once took part in.
Speaker A
Spanish socialists, anarchists, and communists of all sorts and kinds fought themselves even while facing a common enemy.
Speaker A
On the example of Germany, Willy Brandt knew how this would end. After having lived in Germany, Brandt saw dialogue and civic solidarity, when differences in views don’t stand in the way of cooperation, as a reasonable alternative.
Speaker A
In Spain, he called for a dialogue between various anti-fascist forces, all in vain. Those attempts only raised suspicion against him.
Speaker A
After four months in Spain, Brandt left for Paris, and from there, back to Oslo.
Speaker A
Two years later, fascists prevailed in Spain. The next shock for Willy Brandt was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Speaker A
Brandt sharply condemned the policies of Joseph Stalin.
Speaker A
Therefore, in August 1939, after the signing of the pact, being both socialist and anti-fascist, Willy Brandt felt betrayed.
Speaker A
In fairness: in the future, many of Brandt'shopes were connected precisely with the USSR. He did not want the death of Germany, but he wanted the defeat of Adolf Hitler.
Speaker A
In April of 1940, Hitler’s troops occupied Norway. Herbert Frahm, also known as Willy Brandt, was officially the “enemy of the Reich”: even before the war he was stripped of citizenship.
Speaker A
To avoid falling into the hands of the Nazis, Brandt hid himself among the captive Norwegian soldiers.
Speaker A
The uniform was given to him by an artist Paul Gauguin, a grandson of the great French artist.
Speaker A
For about two months Brandt was in the camp for war prisoners. Then the captives were released, and Willy Brandt moved to Sweden, which remained neutral.
Speaker A
However, in the interests of the anti-fascist underground, Brandt illegally travelled to occupied Norway, for which he even ends up in a Swedish prison for a short time.
Speaker A
After many years, Brandt’s political opponents in Western Germany would use his anti-fascist activities against him.
Speaker A
“Frahm was shooting German soldiers”, they were saying, sarcastically calling him by his original last name.
Speaker A
In reality, Willy Brandt never shot his compatriots. His ability to convince was his only weapon.
Speaker A
In parallel with anti-fascist writing, Brandt studied political realities of Scandinavia — this time, on the example of Sweden.
Speaker A
Brandt would later use in Germany the Scandinavian experience of building society based on principles of equality, respect to an individual, and social justice.
Speaker A
After the war, WIlly Brandt returned to Germany. More specifically, to the territory that once was Germany.
Speaker A
It didn’t exist as an entity in international law anymore. Coffee and cigarettes were what passed for a stable currency there.
Speaker A
The allies haven’t yet decided on the future of the country. After two world wars, many people thought that militantism was in German blood and that Germany was a threat to the world, so it should be divided into many small countries.
Speaker A
But Willy Brandt truly believed that there can be a different, peaceful Germany. And that it should rise from ashes and ruin as a peaceful and humane country that cares for its citizens.
Speaker A
Being still true to the ideals of his youth and having learned the internal politics of Scandinavian countries, Willy Brandt wanted to build the new Germany with his own hands.
Speaker A
Instead of living in peace and prosperity in Oslo or Stockholm, he moves to his homeland.
Speaker A
Where there were craters from shells and bombs where once were cities. In Germany, Willy Brandt, being an experienced journalist, was accredited to the sessions of the Nuremberg Tribunal.
Speaker A
The Nuremberg Process was a difficult test for Brandt. He was an antifascist, he had a foreign passport, but still he did not separate himself from the German people.
Speaker A
Listening to testimonials, he was horrified, thinking: “how could we have done all this?!”. Brandt was writing article after an article for the Scandinavian press, but the work ended in a mental break.
Speaker A
He telegraphed to the editorial: “I cannot do this anymore!”. Having pulled himself together, in 1946 Willy Brandt published a book called “Criminals and other Germans”.
Speaker A
In it, he reasoned on the matter of responsibility and guilt. He concluded: there cannot be a collective guilt, guilt should not be inherited.
Speaker A
But there can be collective responsibility. “Criminals and Other Gormans” was published in Norway, but at home, its very name was irritating to the Germans.
Speaker A
Only in 1970th certain excerpts from it were published. Over the course of many years, Willy Brandt was criticized for his views from all sides.
Speaker A
Many politicians of West Germany called him a traitor for his idea of collective responsibility for the German people.
Speaker A
And the USSR didn’t like Willy Brandt's rejection of the idea of inherited guilt. However, the West Berlin burgemeester Willy Brandt declares that it is time to stop talking about fascism.
Speaker A
Twenty years have passed and our patience is exhausted, enough is enough, there is nothing to remember the past, there is no Nazism now.
Speaker A
Being a citizen of Norway, stripped of his German citizenship, Willy Brandt received a position in Berlin as press attache of the Norwegian military mission.
Speaker A
He was now wearing the uniform of a Norwegian civil servant. Later this would be another reason for attacks from the so-called “patriots”.
Speaker A
But it’s Willy Brandt who showed true patriotism. Being on a crossroad of his life, he refused the glorious diplomatic career as a citizen of a victorious country.
Speaker A
In 1948, he received a German passport to participate in German politics. As we mentioned above, Herbert Frahm left SDP with a scandal.
Speaker A
Now, a citizen of Germany Willy Brandt returned to the party. In 1949, former allies in anti-Hirler coalition determined the future for Germany for the next 40 years.
Speaker A
It was divided into two states — the German Democratic Republic in the East and the Federal Republic of Germany in the West.
Speaker A
Berlin itself too was divided. East Berlin was now the capital of GDR. West Berlin was legally considered a special administrative unit.
Speaker A
But in fact, it was an enclave of the FRG, surrounded on all sides by the territory of the GDR.
Speaker A
It was in West Berlin that Willy Brandt began his rise in German politics in the ranks of the SPD.
Speaker A
There, he developed his own concept of “democratic socialism”. For Willy Brandt, socialist approaches to public administration were by no means a value in themselves, but just a tool.
Speaker A
Above all he considered humanity, parliamentary democracy, personal freedom, social justice, and civic solidarity. Willy Brandt was convinced that it all was impossible without having all German citizens engaged in politics.
Speaker A
He considered the “Society of Dignified people” to be his ideal. In his “Society of Dignified People” everyone should feel both personal freedom and personal responsibility for both the present and the future of their country.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt was not alone in his views. In 1959, at the landmark congress in Bad Godesberg, SPD adopted a new program based on the ideas of Willy Brandt.
Speaker A
It established a trinity: “Freedom, Justice, Solidarity”. The problem was written in a lively language and had a mobilizing effect on most readers, not just social democrats.
Speaker A
At that moment, the SPD was in opposition. But after having adopted the new program, it gave up on the “alone against everyone else” psychology.
Speaker A
It was a big accomplishment for Willy Brandt, who knew the price of political self-isolation.
Speaker A
SPD talked to all Germans, regardless of their political views: “be responsible citizens and live the life of your country”.
Speaker A
The party called on its opponents for peaceful and civilized competition. And its main goal was united Germany, where it is good for every German to live.
Speaker A
In 1957, Willy Brandt was elected to the post of the ruling burgomaster - in other words, the mayor of West Berlin.
Speaker A
Here is a very revealing episode of how West Berliners treated him and how he used their attitude.
Speaker A
In 1956, after the Soviet Army suppressed the Hungary uprising, a big anti-soviet demonstration gathered in West Berlin.
Speaker A
The crowd was determined to storm the USSR embassy in East Berlin. It would be easy for him to use that public outrage and earn some political score by endangering the lives of people.
Speaker A
But Willy Brandt spoke before them and found the right words to calm them down.
Speaker A
People trusted him and had given up on the assault that could turn into a massacre.
Speaker A
Brandt was reelected twice as the head of West Berlin. Almost all his thoughts were about reuniting Germany.
Speaker A
But in August of 1961 all his dreams of united Germany were shattered by the Berlin Wall.
Speaker A
On the 16th of August, two days after the wall was built, Willy Brandt had gathered 3000 people for a meeting.
Speaker A
After that, ignoring all rules, he sent a personal letter to the US President John Kennedy, demanding him to intervene.
Speaker A
This emotional act infuriated both Kennedy and the government of the FRG: it was unthinkable that a mayor of West Berlin was engaging in foreign politics independently!
Speaker A
Willy Brandt knew: to make his ideals a reality, he needed supreme power in the FRG.
Speaker A
In 1961 and 1965 he was running for a position of federal chancellor of Western Germany.
Speaker A
It looked hopeless. At that time, social democrats were synonymous to the “eternal opposition”. But Willy Brandt disagreed.
Speaker A
He conducted energetic and spectacular election campaigns. He borrowed some ideas from Kennedy, for whom he had much respect and who was his model in many aspects.
Speaker A
In order to drown Willy Brandt, his political opponents, Konrad Adenauder and Ludwig Erhard from Christian Democratic Union had to resort to the most dirty tricks.
Speaker A
They talked about the fact that he was an illegitimate child, they went through his whole dirty laundry and twisted every fact in his difficult biography.
Speaker A
Brandt is a traitor, they said. Brandt was killing Germans. Willy Brandt was taking these accusations very personally and was often depressed because of it.
Speaker A
One would think that such a sensitive man has no place being in big politics.
Speaker A
But Willy Brandt refused to give up. After a series of defeats in elections, successes followed.
Speaker A
In 1963, John Kennedy was visiting West Berlin. In a meeting before town hall, the American president said the words that went down in history: “I am a Berliner”.
Speaker A
The excited people of West Berlin were thankful not only to the guest from the USA, but also to Willy Brandt.
Speaker A
Few months later Willy Brandt gathered citizens in a huge meeting in memory of Kennedy who was recently murdered.
Speaker A
In 1964, Brandt was elected as a chairman of SPD. In the 60th, conservatives were losing popularity all over Europe, as rebellious youth was becoming more sympathetic to the left.
Speaker A
That is why in 1966 the new chancellor of the FRG from Christian Democratic Union Kurt Kiesinger invited Willy Brandt into his government.
Speaker A
In 1969, the third attempt of Willy Brant to be elected as a chancellor of West Germany had resulted in success.
Speaker A
A new page turned for the history of the country and for the entire Europe.
Speaker A
Having won the position as chancellor, Willy Brandt suggested a new slogan for West Germany: “be more courageous in building democracy”.
Speaker A
The Federative Republic of Germany had been existing for twenty years by then, but Willy Brandt was courageous enough to say: We’re just starting to build a true democracy!”.
Speaker A
A true democracy, Willy Brandt says, is shared responsibility of independent individuals. Citizens must be engaged in governing and making decisions.
Speaker A
Brandt calls democracy not just a form of political organization of society, but a principle of life.
Speaker A
And most importantly, he states that politics must not be a dirty business. Willy Brandt’s government carried out some important reforms in West Germany.
Speaker A
Despite mistakes and miscalculations, in three years they’ve managed to improve healthcare, especially when it comes to fighting oncologies.
Speaker A
Matters regarding pensions, labor unions, city building and insuring children from accidents were settled. Willy Brandt was among the first of western politicians who were seriously concerned with problems of ecology.
Speaker A
But he went down in history as the author of a tremendous change in external politics.
Speaker A
From 1955, the so-called Hallstein Doctrine was dominating the external politics of the Republic of Germany.
Speaker A
According to the doctrine, the FRG didn’t recognize the GDR and did not establish diplomatic relations with countries that recognized the sovereignty of East Germany.
Speaker A
If you think of it, that concept was even a bigger obstacle on the way of reuniting German people than the Berlin Wall.
Speaker A
Brandt suggested the “new eastern politics” as an alternative. On the 19th of March in the city of Erfurt in East Germany, two Willies met — Willy Brandt and the chairman of the government of the GDR Willi Stoph.
Speaker A
People in the GDR were thrilled. They rushed through the police perimeter and surrounded the hotel in which the meeting was taking place.
Speaker A
“Willy Brandt, look at the window” - the crowd screamed. The chancellor later called that day the most emotional in his life.
Speaker A
The phrase “Willy Brandts, look at the window” is now on a huge sign that was put on the roof of the hotel.
Speaker A
Despite the fact that the meeting in Erfurt ended in nothing, the very fact of negotiations taking place marked the beginning of rapprochement of two Germanies.
Speaker A
According to closed polls, Willy Brandt, the leader of the FRG, was the most popular politician in the GDR!
Speaker A
Just three years later, in 1973, the Basic Treaty between GDR and FRG came into effect.
Speaker A
Both countries recognized each other and then became members of the UN. Willy Brandt dreamt of united Germany.
Speaker A
And this is why he decided to recognize the sovereignty and independence of the GDR.
Speaker A
It would seem that this decision goes against the goal that he had set. But such was Brandt’s political wisdom: he realized that the reunification would be impossible without a dialogue.
Speaker A
And any constructive dialogue would be impossible without mutual recognition. There was a paradox: to lay the foundation for future reunification of Germany, he must have first recognized the GDR as a separate country and an equal.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt was first among West German chancellors to solve this equation. But in a sense, by making this decision he was sacrificing himself.
Speaker A
He was certain that he would not live to see the united Germany. What he saw immediately was a barrage of harsh criticism.
Speaker A
Brandt’s “new eastern politics” was not just about East Germany. Willy Brandt recognized all territorial acquisitions of Poland by the results of WW2.
Speaker A
Those were historically German lands! Willy Brandt was consistently establishing diplomatic relations with all countries of the East Bloc.
Speaker A
He even managed to harm Leonid Brezhnev himself. In 1970, the Moscow treaty was signed.
Speaker A
The FRG gave up all claims on the Kaliningrad region, and the USSR promised to not interfere with the reunification of Germany, if such a possibility would arise in the future.
Speaker A
In 1971 WIlly Brandt once again visited Oslo — this time to be awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker A
In 1973, Willy Brandt became the first chancellor of Germany to speak in the UN and to visit Israel.
Speaker A
In Jerusalem, Willy Brandt couldn’t kneel like he did in Warsaw — the gesture was only meaningful when it was spontaneous.
Speaker A
But he found another way to reach the hearts of Israelites: he read excerpts from the Torah.
Speaker A
But it wasn’t without problems. In autumn of 1972, Brandt’s career hung in the balance.
Speaker A
His political opponents from Christian Democratic Union have put a vote of no confidence before the parliament.
Speaker A
The entire West Germany gathered before TV screens. Brandt’s fate was about to be decided by a few votes in the Bundestag.
Speaker A
Suddenly, the state security service of GDR came to his rescue. East Germany valued Brandt for his negotiability so Stasi bribed a deputy from Christian Democrats, maybe even more than one of them.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt remained in his position by a few votes in Bundestag. But the chancellor still had to conduct early elections into the Parliament.
Speaker A
Brandt was eager to see his compatriots engage into politics, and at this time of crisis his wish was fulfilled.
Speaker A
91% of voters participated in elections in 1972 — an unprecedented record! By the results of the vote, Willy Brandt’s party won decisively.
Speaker A
But this victory was also his last political success. The election campaign exhausted the chancellor and seriously undermined his health.
Speaker A
After the victory, disagreements began between comrades. The oil crisis of 1973 was a very serious blow to the economy.
Speaker A
In the end, Willy Brandt was destroyed by the very people who saved him. In 1974, his closest associate, his referent and close friend Gunter Guillaume was exposed as a Stasi agent.
Speaker A
Guillaume followed Brandt even on vacation, top secret documents went through his hands. There was a grandiose scandal in the FRG.
Speaker A
The chancellor had the documents that would allow him to put the blame on counterintelligence service.
Speaker A
But he followed his “politics of conscience” to the end. Willy Brandt accepted full responsibility and resigned.
Speaker A
He freely gave up the position that he was striving for throughout his whole life.
Speaker A
Leonid Brezhnev himself apologized: “forgive me herr Brandt, i knew nothing of it. It was all due to the arrogance of our comrades in Germany”.
Speaker A
Fellow party members were weeping as he went out. For thirteen years after his resignation, Willy Brandt was leading the SPD and was elected to European Parliament from it.
Speaker A
He passed away in 1992. Two years after Germany reunited. Despite his own predictions, he lived to see the fruits of his “new eastern policy”.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt was a conscience of the German people, but he himself was not a saint.
Speaker A
He loved a good drink and valued personal comfort. He often fell in despair from failures and suffered from episodes of depression.
Speaker A
He reminded John Kennedy not only by his personal charm, but also by his habit for love affairs.
Speaker A
Brandt was married thrice, and his last wife was 33 years younger than him. Another stain on his biography as a politician was his cooperation with American intelligence in the very beginning of his post-war career.
Speaker A
And as a chancellor of the FRG he signed an odious law that banned so-called “radicals” (which could mean anything) from civic service.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt’s flaws are another reminder that politics is an art of the possible. No politician is perfect. None are perfect but some are honest.
Speaker A
Among Willy Brandt’s quotes there are: “Politics is impossible without empathy”, “The obligation of a head of a state is to speak truth before the people”.
Speaker A
Brandt fought against the perception of politics as of dirty business. On the 100 years anniversary of Brandt’s birthday, Spiegel wrote: “Brandt’s most important achievement is that he awakened in them love and commitment to democracy.
Speaker A
This was his true legacy”. Soviet journalist and Willy Brandt’s biographer Alexandr Pozharsky who knew the chancellor personally, say this about his role: “In FRG I always admired how active West Germans were, how they truly thought of themselves as citizens of their country, who didn’t just passively watch their government making decisions,
Speaker A
but used every opportunity to voice their position — whether they agree or disagree. Thanks to Brandt, the Germans believed that politics can be highly moral, and have learnt the sense of responsibility”.
Speaker A
Not every seed that Brandt planted bore fruit immediately. In 1970, according to polls, half of western Germans condemned the kneeling in Warsaw.
Speaker A
But another poll in 2002 showed: in united Germany, the majority of citizens think of Willy Brandt as a shining example of German politics.
Speaker A
In 2020, the country celebrated the 50-years anniversary of his visit to Warsaw. The historic act of repentance was engraved on a German anniversary 2 euros coin.
Speaker A
Modern Germany is proud of her chancellor’s act. Today in Jerusalem there is a Center of Willy Brandt.
Speaker A
In Volgograd, former Stalingrad, there is a Society of Willy Brandt. It’s a great honor for a country that in the past exterminated 6 million jews and erased Stalingrad with tens of thousands of its residents.
Speaker A
Accepting responsibility is what mature and strong people do. Sensitive and vulnerable by nature, Willy Brandt always showed himself to be a truly strong person: in anti-fascist underground, on Nurmeberg process, as a burgomister of West Berlin and as a chancellor of West Germany.
Speaker A
In Warsaw and Jerusalem he showed the example of political responsibility to his compatriots, even though not all of them were ready for it.
Speaker A
Some thought that repentance belittled the dignity of the German people. But as time showed, it has actually returned national dignity to the Germans.
Speaker A
Willy Brandt was an honest patriot and he believed in Germany. And 30 years after his death, a united, free, prosperous Germany still believes in his principles: civic responsibility, freedom, solidarity, and justice.
Speaker A
That’s it. See you tomorrow.
Topics:Willy BrandtGermany reunificationanti-fascismSocial Democratic PartyOstpolitikNobel Peace PrizeBerlin Wallpolitical biographyGerman historyCold War politics
