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Willy Brandt

Not to be confused with Vassily Brandt.
This article is about the German politician. For people with a similar name, see William Brandt (disambiguation).

Willy Brandt
Brandt in 1980
Chancellor of West Germany[a]
In office
22 October 1969 – 7 May 1974
PresidentGustav Heinemann
Preceded byKurt Georg Kiesinger
Succeeded by
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
In office
16 February 1964 – 14 June 1987
Federal Manager
Preceded byErich Ollenhauer
Succeeded byHans-Jochen Vogel
Vice Chancellor of West Germany
In office
1 December 1966 – 22 October 1969
ChancellorKurt Georg Kiesinger
Preceded byHans-Christoph Seebohm
Succeeded byWalter Scheel
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office
1 December 1966 – 20 October 1969
ChancellorKurt Georg Kiesinger
Preceded byGerhard Schröder
Succeeded byWalter Scheel
Governing Mayor of West Berlin
In office
3 October 1957 – 30 November 1966
Mayor
Preceded byOtto Suhr
Succeeded byHeinrich Albertz
President of the Bundesrat
In office
1 November 1957 – 31 October 1958
First Vice President
Preceded byKurt Sieveking
Succeeded byWilhelm Kaisen
President of the
Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin
In office
11 January 1955 – 2 October 1957
Preceded byOtto Suhr
Succeeded byKurt Landsberg
Personal details
Born
Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm

(1913-12-18)18 December 1913
Lübeck, Free City of Lübeck, German Empire (now Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
Died8 October 1992(1992-10-08) (aged 78)
Unkel, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Resting placeZehlendorf, Berlin
CitizenshipGermany (revoked 1938; regained 1948)
Norway (1940–1948)
Political partySocial Democratic Party (1930–1931; from 1948)
Other political
affiliations		Socialist Workers' Party (1931–1946)
Spouses
  • Carlotta Thorkildsen
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1941; div. 1948)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1948; div. 1980)​
  • Brigitte Seebacher
    ​
    (m. 1983)​
Children4, including Matthias
AwardsNobel Peace Prize (1971)
Signature

Willy Brandt (German: [ˈvɪliː ˈbʁant] ; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974.[1] He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in Western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe.[2] He was the first Social Democratic chancellor since 1930.[3]

Fleeing to Norway and then Sweden during the Nazi regime and working as a left-wing journalist, he took the name Willy Brandt as a pseudonym to avoid detection by Nazi agents, and then formally adopted the name in 1948. Brandt earned initial fame as governing mayor of West Berlin. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice chancellor in Kurt Georg Kiesinger's cabinet, and became chancellor in 1969.[4]

As chancellor, he maintained West Germany's close alignment with the United States and focused on strengthening European integration in Western Europe, while launching the new policy of Ostpolitik aimed at improving relations with Eastern Europe. Brandt was controversial on both the right wing, for his Ostpolitik, and on the left wing, for his support of American policies, including his silence on the Vietnam War[5] that he broke only in 1973,[6] and right-wing authoritarian regimes.[7] The Brandt Report became a recognised measure for describing the general North–South divide in world economics and politics between an affluent North and a poor South. Brandt was also known for his fierce anti-communist policies at the domestic level, culminating in the Radikalenerlass (Anti-Radical Decree) in 1972. In 1970, while visiting a memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising crushed by the Germans, Brandt unexpectedly knelt and meditated in silence, a moment remembered as the Kniefall von Warschau.

Brandt resigned as chancellor in 1974, after Günter Guillaume, one of his closest aides, was exposed as an agent of the Stasi, the East German secret service.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Willy Brandt | German Chancellor, Nobel Peace Prize Winner | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 12 April 2024. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  2. ^ "The 1971 Nobel Prize – Presentation Speech". Nobelprize.org. Retrieved 17 April 2017.
  3. ^ Since Hermann Müller in 1930
  4. ^ Marshall 1997.
  5. ^ "Event – GHI Washington". Homepage – GHI Washington. 30 September 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  6. ^ "BRANDT AND PARTY MAKE PEACE APPEAL". The New York Times. 16 January 1973. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  7. ^ Greve, Michael S.; Kriele, Martin (1986). "Willy Brandt & the Sandinistas: The Neutralization of the SPD". The National Interest (4). Center for the National Interest: 100–103. ISSN 0884-9382. JSTOR 42894439. Retrieved 2 May 2024.

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