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Willy Brandt, 1913-1992: Visionär und Realist
Das persönliche Schicksal Willy Brandts ist auf einzigartige Weise mit der politischen Geschichte Deutschlands im 20. Jahrhundert verbunden. Sein Lebensweg ist geprägt von einschneidenden Ereignissen, von der Machtergreifung der Nationalsozialisten 1933 bis zum Mauerfall 1989. Peter Merseburger hat die erste umfassende, auf allen zugänglichen Quellen fußende Biographie des großen Politikers geschrieben.
Willy Brandt polarisierte die politischen Lager wie kein zweiter. Dabei zählt er gleichzeitig zu den wenigen, die in der Politik moralische Maßstäbe gesetzt haben. Peter Merseburger hat für diese erste umfassende Biographie in- und ausländische Archive genutzt und Zugang zum Nachlaß Willy Brandts erhalten. Seine langjährigen Recherchen und eine Fülle von Interviews mit Zeitzeugen versetzen Merseburger in die Lage, Willy Brandts Lebensgeschichte in die deusche Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts einzubetten. Anschaulich und mit analytischem Scharfsinn beschreibt Merseburger die Jugend in Lübeck, die Exilzeit in Skandinavien und den politischen Aufstieg nach 1945. Er zeichnet das wechselvolle Leben dieser sozialdemokratischen Jahrhundertgestalt in einer großen, ihre Brüche und Widersprüche umfassenden Biographie Willy Brandts nach, der Visionär und Realist in einem war.
Willy Brandt polarisierte die politischen Lager wie kein zweiter. Dabei zählt er gleichzeitig zu den wenigen, die in der Politik moralische Maßstäbe gesetzt haben. Peter Merseburger hat für diese erste umfassende Biographie in- und ausländische Archive genutzt und Zugang zum Nachlaß Willy Brandts erhalten. Seine langjährigen Recherchen und eine Fülle von Interviews mit Zeitzeugen versetzen Merseburger in die Lage, Willy Brandts Lebensgeschichte in die deusche Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts einzubetten. Anschaulich und mit analytischem Scharfsinn beschreibt Merseburger die Jugend in Lübeck, die Exilzeit in Skandinavien und den politischen Aufstieg nach 1945. Er zeichnet das wechselvolle Leben dieser sozialdemokratischen Jahrhundertgestalt in einer großen, ihre Brüche und Widersprüche umfassenden Biographie Willy Brandts nach, der Visionär und Realist in einem war.
928 pages, Hardcover
First published June 30, 2004
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January 19, 2024
When Willy Brandt became vice chancellor in the newly formed Grand Coalition of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Social Democrats (SPD), he was the first German foreign minister who was “an anti-fascist and active in the resistance against the Hitler regime.” During his terms as foreign minister and chancellor from 1966 to 1974, Brandt defined and implemented Ostpolitik, a policy of non-ideological pragmatism and engaged diplomacy with the Soviet Bloc. It changed the strategic course of the Cold War and set the stage for the eventual fall of the Iron Curtain. Peter Merseburger’s biography expertly demonstrates how Brandt’s vision was nurtured by his early life experiences and how the impact of his achievements reached far beyond his tenure as an elected public servant.
Karl Herbert Frahm was born in Lübeck to a working class single mother and raised in large part by his maternal grandfather Ludwig Frahm, a committed member of the SPD. As a politically active youth, he became a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party (SAP), which broke from the SPD because of its timid response to the rise of the Nazis. While attending an SAP meeting in Leipzig after the Nazis took power, the attendees learned that they were at risk of being arrested and adopted pseudonyms to avoid detection. Frahm traveled as Willy Brandt, the name he kept for the rest of his life.
A 20 year old Brandt fled to Oslo to head up an exile affiliate of the SAP. He became a respected publicist and journalist and was a leader in the a campaign to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Carl von Ossietzky, the editor of a prominent left-wing magazine hated by the Nazis and one of the first concentration camp internees. Although common today, this was the first time the prize was awarded to shine a light on a political issue. In 1936, he spent three months organizing in Berlin under an assumed name, one of many times he narrowly eluded the Gestapo. Later he was sent by the SAP to work with the socialist POUM in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.
Brandt’s experiences in Oslo, witnessing the Stalinist purges in Spain, and his second exile in Sweden, following the Nazi conquest of Norway, shaped his lifelong commitment to socialism, workers’ causes, compromise, and opposition to dogmatic, extreme policies. During his exile, Brandt became a Norwegian citizen (his German citizenship was stripped by the Nazis in absentia). In addition to writing for Swedish and Norwegian publications, he wrote dispatches for the New York Times. A Times correspondent credited Brandt with writing the first ever article describing genocide in Nazi concentration camps in 1942.
With the many connections and relationships he forged, after the war he had the choice to join the Norwegian government in a foreign ministry or United Nations role. Instead, wearing a Norwegian uniform, he returned to Germany to report on the Nürnberg trials. It was here that he understood the scope of the story he had published earlier. The title of the book he wrote, Verbrecher und andere Deutsche (Criminals and Other Germans), published posthumously in German, would be mischaracterized in his later political career.
Eventually settling in Berlin, Brandt once again became a member of the SPD after party leaders disavowing its Weimar-era passivity. He became a member of parliament, the right hand man of Ernst Reuter, the charismatic mayor of Berlin who saw the city through the 1948 blockade, and a leader of the anti-communist left. In 1956 he was elected mayor of West Berlin (while maintaining his parliamentary seat). Berlin’s importance and symbolism as the easternmost outpost behind the Iron Curtain, led to him traveling around the world, especially in nonaligned countries, to promote its status as a free city. By 1961 he became leader of the SPD, a position he held until 1988, and was chosen to lead the party in national elections against Konrad Adenauer.
His visibility catapulted even higher after the building of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961. Mostly forgotten now was the relatively mute reaction about the Wall that came from the U.S., the German government, and the NATO allies. It was left to Brandt to rally both domestic and international voices as well as to give hope to West Berliners. Largely forgotten now, Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech was made almost two years after the Wall went up. In coming years Brandt would crisscross the globe to become arguably the most well known mayor in world history.
Late in 1961, he balanced his duties as mayor with those as the lead SPD candidate in national elections. Although his party did not have enough votes to form a parliamentary majority, and would not again in 1966, Brandt’s worldwide popularity and celebrity made him an obvious target of his political enemies as they tried to distort and exploit fictions to weaken him politically. Right wing publications began to circulate wild accusations that Brandt was everything from a CIA to a Nazi mole while he was in exile. Others claimed that he was a collaborating Stalinist who took up arms during the Spanish Civil War. All were provable lies.
Even Adenauer joined in the character assassination by referring to “Brandt alias Frahm,” using police jargon to imply Brandt had something to hide about his past (a paper supporting Brandt countered with “Adenauer alias the chancellor”). At a campaign event, the conservative icon Franz Josef Strauß went so far as to proclaim “One thing we ought to be allowed to ask Mr. Brandt: What did you do for twelve years on the outside? We know what we were doing on the inside.” His past Norwegian citizenship added to the fodder. And since his book about the Nürnberg trials had never been translated into German, it was easy for his critics to misrepresent its title. As his closest advisor Egon Bahr observed, “Their attack on Brandt’s past found particular resonance with those who had National Socialist roots.” Brandt overcame these vicious attacks through his charismatic style, effective politics and appeal to young voters.
The reality of the Berlin Wall made Brandt reconsider his past political stand prioritizing the reunification of Germany over Adenauer’s policy goal of integrating Germany with the West. Brandt understood that coexistence was “the only alternative to nuclear war and, therefore, to the suicide of humanity.” Reunification would be a much longer “process with many steps and stations” according to Bahr. Ostpolitik was born. While Germans were still not comfortable with the SPD on domestic policy, after all, Ludwig Erhard, the architect of the German miracle replaced Adenauer as chancellor, more and more respect grew for the quasi-foreign minister who happened to be the mayor of West Berlin. But even Erhard could not put together an economic policy nor understand the nuances of the Atlantic alliance nor adjust the ideology of anti-communism to keep the Free Democrats (FDP) from leaving the governing coalition.
Now the CDU, under the leadership of Kurt Kiesinger, a former low level member of the Nazi party, was forced to build a Grand Coalition with the SPD and offer Brandt the roles of vice chancellor and foreign minister. In an era that was defined by foreign policy, the new role gave Brandt the platform to “govern from the opposition.” From 1966 through the elections of 1969, Brandt led initiatives to open West Germany lines of communication between the Soviet Bloc that kept Kiesinger and the CDU on the defensive. Kiesinger was limited in his policy and political options because he saw himself “as a representative of all those who remained in the country who made arrangements with the Nazis, but didn’t accept responsibility for the crimes committed.”
The most important policy break was the repudiation of the Hallstein Doctrine. In effect since 1955, it posited that any nation that gave diplomatic recognition to East Germany would break its relationship with West Germany. In many Third World nations, this became an invitation to extract even more economic support from both nations until one prevailed. Instead Brandt built up many relationships, most importantly with the Italian Communist Party, to peel away unconditional support for East Germany from many Soviet Bloc allies, including the Soviet Union itself. Many of these negotiations were held at the party level, with Brandt representing the SPD and not the Grand Coalition government. All these efforts set the stage for the 1969 elections.
Willy Brandt led the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) to its best results in those elections. In building a governing coalitions with the FDP, he offered Walter Scheel the vice chancellorship and foreign ministry, Brandt became the first SPD chancellor of Germany since 1930. Horst Emke, Brandt’s chief of staff often opened every work day with “Willy, wake up, we have to govern!” And govern they did. Even though Brandt’s time in the chancellorship lasted less than four years, he instituted policies that were continued by his successors regardless of party or ideological viewpoint.
Adenauer’s great achievement was to integrate post-WWII West Germany into the West. As Merseburger writes, the policies of “the Brandt/Scheel government created a balance with the East, thought of as a complement, not a substitute” and “in the future no political solutions of importance can exist ‘outside of alliances, security systems or communities.’”
Substantive symbolism was integral to Brandt’s success. Early in his administration Brandt made the first state visit of a West German head of state to Poland. Upon visiting the memorial of the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto on December 7, 1970, Brandt placed a wreath, stepped back and—previously unknown to his hosts, his advisors, or even himself—fell to his knees (Kniefall) and remained there in stoic silence for more than half a minute. Although he was active in the resistance against Hitler and helped to tell the world about Nazi atrocities, as the head of state he gesture was “for all who need to, but won’t kneel—either because they can’t or wouldn’t dare to.” It was the first gesture of contrition by a representative of Germany for the sins of Nazi Germany; not a sign of weakness but, as Merseburger sums up, “a symbol of morality in politics which is often so painfully missing.”
In 1971 Brandt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the fourth German to receive it and the first since Carl von Ossiestzky, whose award he was so influential in securing. The Nobel Committee recognized his contributions “as head of the West German government and in the name of the German people to reach out the hand of conciliation to old enemies.” Also recognized were his efforts to carry out his policies not just on behalf of the German people, but within a framework that strengthened the prospects of a strong and vibrant European community.
A powerful event in German-German relations occurred on March 19, 1973 during Brandt’s only state visit to East Germany. After traveling to Erfurt for a meeting with President Willi Stoph, a spontaneous crowd accompanied him from the train station to his hotel. They remained gathered outside the hotel chanting “Willy Brandt, Willy Brandt” so there would be no mistaking which Willy (not Willi) they wanted to see. When Brandt went to the window to acknowledge the crowd, the cheer led to what he later recalled “was the most emotionally filled” day of his life. Never before had East Germans the opportunity to voice their heartfelt feelings about the West German government. In doing so, they also articulated their disdain for their own. Later in the trip, he visited the Buchenwald concentration camp site near Weimar and paid tribute to the grave of Ernst Thälmann, who was the communist candidate who ran against Hitler. This did not please the East Germany leadership. Communist Party chair Walther Ulbricht characterized Brandt as “the most dangerous and influential leader of international social democracy.”
In May 1973 Brandt and Scheel were in Moscow to sign a treaty in which West Germany accepted the eastern boundary of Germany as the Oder-Neisse Line and withdrew any claim to the lands ceded to Poland and Russia after WWII. Of course, it is not of trivial interest that the border mentioned in the treaty was not a part of West Germany or the Soviet Union. With this, he discarded the Hallstein Doctrine to exchange isolation and potential confrontation for engagement and building constructive, bilateral partnerships.
After rallying the SPD/FDP coalition to its greatest victory at the polls in 1973—months before virtually everyone predicted a big loss—Brandt’s administration suffered from internal policy divisions, staff dissention, and a stagnating world economy. But by early 1974, news surfaced to that one of Brandt’s personal staff, Günter Guillaume, and his wife were part of a sleeper cell that the East German Stasi had been grooming in West Germany since the mid-1950s. Guillaume had worked his way up the party to eventually secure a job in a non-political role on Brandt’s staff. Just as the news came to light, so did the knowledge of Brandt’s numerous affairs while in office. He had been personally and politically comprised and chose to resign. Unlike Nixon’s fall a few months later, Brandt did not hurt his party. He remained leader and also assumed the chair of Socialist International (SI), an umbrella group of all social democratic parties and movements throughout the world.
As party leader, Brandt found a new role and voice; he transformed from a politician to an elder statesman. In his non-governmental role, he nurtured back channels to the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact and Third World nations to assist both the European Commonwealth and the Schmidt and Kohl governments. His relationships opened doors that were closed to formal diplomacy. Brandt also became a godfather of sorts not only to the next generation of the German SPD, but, more importantly to social democratic leaders and movements throughout the world. Whether in Europe, South Africa, India, Central or South America, Australia, or the Middle East, Brandt was always on the move, always advocating for workers’ rights, and always mentoring his fellow social democrats to be non-ideological and pragmatic while maintain their ideals. Spanish social democrat Felipe Gonzalez was even Brandt’s choice to do the eulogy at his funeral.
With the fall of the Wall, Brandt’s reputation reached its zenith. CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl acknowledged that his party had been wrong to oppose Brandt when he implemented the policy of Ostpolitik. Brandt was invited to speak at the ceremony that marked German reunification. His speech stole the show. “Now that will grow together which belongs together.” (“Jetzt wächst zusammen, was zusammengehört.”) In opposition to many in his party, he was unsuccessful in convincing a majority to move the capital from Bonn to Berlin—by one vote—but after his death, his wish became a reality. Bonn was, in his opinion, a temporary solution to a historical problem. He compared the idea with a French analogy: “…no one would arrive at the idea to stay in the relatively idyllic Vichy if foreign powers didn’t stand in the way of returning the capital to the banks of the Seine.”
Again, Merseburger: “In contrast to most other politicians, he didn’t react to events, instead he shaped and formed them” and he was less interested in “confirming legal positions and instead concentrated on practical responsibilities and pragmatic solutions.” In almost Christian terms, Brandt’s “historical service” was to take “the burdens and pressures” of Germany’s past “upon himself.” In other words, Brandt was the fulcrum who changed the Germany’s destiny from guilt about the past to becoming a constructive partner to build a better future.
Before he died of colon cancer, he traveled to Iraq to try to avert a war. While there, his efforts led to the release of 194 hostages—including 136 Germans, Italians, Dutch, British, Canadians and four Americans. His last great diplomatic triumph, as Merseburger writes in his concluding paragraph, demonstrated
Karl Herbert Frahm was born in Lübeck to a working class single mother and raised in large part by his maternal grandfather Ludwig Frahm, a committed member of the SPD. As a politically active youth, he became a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party (SAP), which broke from the SPD because of its timid response to the rise of the Nazis. While attending an SAP meeting in Leipzig after the Nazis took power, the attendees learned that they were at risk of being arrested and adopted pseudonyms to avoid detection. Frahm traveled as Willy Brandt, the name he kept for the rest of his life.
A 20 year old Brandt fled to Oslo to head up an exile affiliate of the SAP. He became a respected publicist and journalist and was a leader in the a campaign to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Carl von Ossietzky, the editor of a prominent left-wing magazine hated by the Nazis and one of the first concentration camp internees. Although common today, this was the first time the prize was awarded to shine a light on a political issue. In 1936, he spent three months organizing in Berlin under an assumed name, one of many times he narrowly eluded the Gestapo. Later he was sent by the SAP to work with the socialist POUM in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.
Brandt’s experiences in Oslo, witnessing the Stalinist purges in Spain, and his second exile in Sweden, following the Nazi conquest of Norway, shaped his lifelong commitment to socialism, workers’ causes, compromise, and opposition to dogmatic, extreme policies. During his exile, Brandt became a Norwegian citizen (his German citizenship was stripped by the Nazis in absentia). In addition to writing for Swedish and Norwegian publications, he wrote dispatches for the New York Times. A Times correspondent credited Brandt with writing the first ever article describing genocide in Nazi concentration camps in 1942.
With the many connections and relationships he forged, after the war he had the choice to join the Norwegian government in a foreign ministry or United Nations role. Instead, wearing a Norwegian uniform, he returned to Germany to report on the Nürnberg trials. It was here that he understood the scope of the story he had published earlier. The title of the book he wrote, Verbrecher und andere Deutsche (Criminals and Other Germans), published posthumously in German, would be mischaracterized in his later political career.
Eventually settling in Berlin, Brandt once again became a member of the SPD after party leaders disavowing its Weimar-era passivity. He became a member of parliament, the right hand man of Ernst Reuter, the charismatic mayor of Berlin who saw the city through the 1948 blockade, and a leader of the anti-communist left. In 1956 he was elected mayor of West Berlin (while maintaining his parliamentary seat). Berlin’s importance and symbolism as the easternmost outpost behind the Iron Curtain, led to him traveling around the world, especially in nonaligned countries, to promote its status as a free city. By 1961 he became leader of the SPD, a position he held until 1988, and was chosen to lead the party in national elections against Konrad Adenauer.
His visibility catapulted even higher after the building of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961. Mostly forgotten now was the relatively mute reaction about the Wall that came from the U.S., the German government, and the NATO allies. It was left to Brandt to rally both domestic and international voices as well as to give hope to West Berliners. Largely forgotten now, Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech was made almost two years after the Wall went up. In coming years Brandt would crisscross the globe to become arguably the most well known mayor in world history.
Late in 1961, he balanced his duties as mayor with those as the lead SPD candidate in national elections. Although his party did not have enough votes to form a parliamentary majority, and would not again in 1966, Brandt’s worldwide popularity and celebrity made him an obvious target of his political enemies as they tried to distort and exploit fictions to weaken him politically. Right wing publications began to circulate wild accusations that Brandt was everything from a CIA to a Nazi mole while he was in exile. Others claimed that he was a collaborating Stalinist who took up arms during the Spanish Civil War. All were provable lies.
Even Adenauer joined in the character assassination by referring to “Brandt alias Frahm,” using police jargon to imply Brandt had something to hide about his past (a paper supporting Brandt countered with “Adenauer alias the chancellor”). At a campaign event, the conservative icon Franz Josef Strauß went so far as to proclaim “One thing we ought to be allowed to ask Mr. Brandt: What did you do for twelve years on the outside? We know what we were doing on the inside.” His past Norwegian citizenship added to the fodder. And since his book about the Nürnberg trials had never been translated into German, it was easy for his critics to misrepresent its title. As his closest advisor Egon Bahr observed, “Their attack on Brandt’s past found particular resonance with those who had National Socialist roots.” Brandt overcame these vicious attacks through his charismatic style, effective politics and appeal to young voters.
The reality of the Berlin Wall made Brandt reconsider his past political stand prioritizing the reunification of Germany over Adenauer’s policy goal of integrating Germany with the West. Brandt understood that coexistence was “the only alternative to nuclear war and, therefore, to the suicide of humanity.” Reunification would be a much longer “process with many steps and stations” according to Bahr. Ostpolitik was born. While Germans were still not comfortable with the SPD on domestic policy, after all, Ludwig Erhard, the architect of the German miracle replaced Adenauer as chancellor, more and more respect grew for the quasi-foreign minister who happened to be the mayor of West Berlin. But even Erhard could not put together an economic policy nor understand the nuances of the Atlantic alliance nor adjust the ideology of anti-communism to keep the Free Democrats (FDP) from leaving the governing coalition.
Now the CDU, under the leadership of Kurt Kiesinger, a former low level member of the Nazi party, was forced to build a Grand Coalition with the SPD and offer Brandt the roles of vice chancellor and foreign minister. In an era that was defined by foreign policy, the new role gave Brandt the platform to “govern from the opposition.” From 1966 through the elections of 1969, Brandt led initiatives to open West Germany lines of communication between the Soviet Bloc that kept Kiesinger and the CDU on the defensive. Kiesinger was limited in his policy and political options because he saw himself “as a representative of all those who remained in the country who made arrangements with the Nazis, but didn’t accept responsibility for the crimes committed.”
The most important policy break was the repudiation of the Hallstein Doctrine. In effect since 1955, it posited that any nation that gave diplomatic recognition to East Germany would break its relationship with West Germany. In many Third World nations, this became an invitation to extract even more economic support from both nations until one prevailed. Instead Brandt built up many relationships, most importantly with the Italian Communist Party, to peel away unconditional support for East Germany from many Soviet Bloc allies, including the Soviet Union itself. Many of these negotiations were held at the party level, with Brandt representing the SPD and not the Grand Coalition government. All these efforts set the stage for the 1969 elections.
Willy Brandt led the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) to its best results in those elections. In building a governing coalitions with the FDP, he offered Walter Scheel the vice chancellorship and foreign ministry, Brandt became the first SPD chancellor of Germany since 1930. Horst Emke, Brandt’s chief of staff often opened every work day with “Willy, wake up, we have to govern!” And govern they did. Even though Brandt’s time in the chancellorship lasted less than four years, he instituted policies that were continued by his successors regardless of party or ideological viewpoint.
Adenauer’s great achievement was to integrate post-WWII West Germany into the West. As Merseburger writes, the policies of “the Brandt/Scheel government created a balance with the East, thought of as a complement, not a substitute” and “in the future no political solutions of importance can exist ‘outside of alliances, security systems or communities.’”
Substantive symbolism was integral to Brandt’s success. Early in his administration Brandt made the first state visit of a West German head of state to Poland. Upon visiting the memorial of the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto on December 7, 1970, Brandt placed a wreath, stepped back and—previously unknown to his hosts, his advisors, or even himself—fell to his knees (Kniefall) and remained there in stoic silence for more than half a minute. Although he was active in the resistance against Hitler and helped to tell the world about Nazi atrocities, as the head of state he gesture was “for all who need to, but won’t kneel—either because they can’t or wouldn’t dare to.” It was the first gesture of contrition by a representative of Germany for the sins of Nazi Germany; not a sign of weakness but, as Merseburger sums up, “a symbol of morality in politics which is often so painfully missing.”
In 1971 Brandt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the fourth German to receive it and the first since Carl von Ossiestzky, whose award he was so influential in securing. The Nobel Committee recognized his contributions “as head of the West German government and in the name of the German people to reach out the hand of conciliation to old enemies.” Also recognized were his efforts to carry out his policies not just on behalf of the German people, but within a framework that strengthened the prospects of a strong and vibrant European community.
A powerful event in German-German relations occurred on March 19, 1973 during Brandt’s only state visit to East Germany. After traveling to Erfurt for a meeting with President Willi Stoph, a spontaneous crowd accompanied him from the train station to his hotel. They remained gathered outside the hotel chanting “Willy Brandt, Willy Brandt” so there would be no mistaking which Willy (not Willi) they wanted to see. When Brandt went to the window to acknowledge the crowd, the cheer led to what he later recalled “was the most emotionally filled” day of his life. Never before had East Germans the opportunity to voice their heartfelt feelings about the West German government. In doing so, they also articulated their disdain for their own. Later in the trip, he visited the Buchenwald concentration camp site near Weimar and paid tribute to the grave of Ernst Thälmann, who was the communist candidate who ran against Hitler. This did not please the East Germany leadership. Communist Party chair Walther Ulbricht characterized Brandt as “the most dangerous and influential leader of international social democracy.”
In May 1973 Brandt and Scheel were in Moscow to sign a treaty in which West Germany accepted the eastern boundary of Germany as the Oder-Neisse Line and withdrew any claim to the lands ceded to Poland and Russia after WWII. Of course, it is not of trivial interest that the border mentioned in the treaty was not a part of West Germany or the Soviet Union. With this, he discarded the Hallstein Doctrine to exchange isolation and potential confrontation for engagement and building constructive, bilateral partnerships.
After rallying the SPD/FDP coalition to its greatest victory at the polls in 1973—months before virtually everyone predicted a big loss—Brandt’s administration suffered from internal policy divisions, staff dissention, and a stagnating world economy. But by early 1974, news surfaced to that one of Brandt’s personal staff, Günter Guillaume, and his wife were part of a sleeper cell that the East German Stasi had been grooming in West Germany since the mid-1950s. Guillaume had worked his way up the party to eventually secure a job in a non-political role on Brandt’s staff. Just as the news came to light, so did the knowledge of Brandt’s numerous affairs while in office. He had been personally and politically comprised and chose to resign. Unlike Nixon’s fall a few months later, Brandt did not hurt his party. He remained leader and also assumed the chair of Socialist International (SI), an umbrella group of all social democratic parties and movements throughout the world.
As party leader, Brandt found a new role and voice; he transformed from a politician to an elder statesman. In his non-governmental role, he nurtured back channels to the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact and Third World nations to assist both the European Commonwealth and the Schmidt and Kohl governments. His relationships opened doors that were closed to formal diplomacy. Brandt also became a godfather of sorts not only to the next generation of the German SPD, but, more importantly to social democratic leaders and movements throughout the world. Whether in Europe, South Africa, India, Central or South America, Australia, or the Middle East, Brandt was always on the move, always advocating for workers’ rights, and always mentoring his fellow social democrats to be non-ideological and pragmatic while maintain their ideals. Spanish social democrat Felipe Gonzalez was even Brandt’s choice to do the eulogy at his funeral.
With the fall of the Wall, Brandt’s reputation reached its zenith. CDU Chancellor Helmut Kohl acknowledged that his party had been wrong to oppose Brandt when he implemented the policy of Ostpolitik. Brandt was invited to speak at the ceremony that marked German reunification. His speech stole the show. “Now that will grow together which belongs together.” (“Jetzt wächst zusammen, was zusammengehört.”) In opposition to many in his party, he was unsuccessful in convincing a majority to move the capital from Bonn to Berlin—by one vote—but after his death, his wish became a reality. Bonn was, in his opinion, a temporary solution to a historical problem. He compared the idea with a French analogy: “…no one would arrive at the idea to stay in the relatively idyllic Vichy if foreign powers didn’t stand in the way of returning the capital to the banks of the Seine.”
Again, Merseburger: “In contrast to most other politicians, he didn’t react to events, instead he shaped and formed them” and he was less interested in “confirming legal positions and instead concentrated on practical responsibilities and pragmatic solutions.” In almost Christian terms, Brandt’s “historical service” was to take “the burdens and pressures” of Germany’s past “upon himself.” In other words, Brandt was the fulcrum who changed the Germany’s destiny from guilt about the past to becoming a constructive partner to build a better future.
Before he died of colon cancer, he traveled to Iraq to try to avert a war. While there, his efforts led to the release of 194 hostages—including 136 Germans, Italians, Dutch, British, Canadians and four Americans. His last great diplomatic triumph, as Merseburger writes in his concluding paragraph, demonstrated
When this Willy Brandt spoke of Freedom, he had freedom for the many, not the few, in mind, but also freedom from fear and need, as it once stood in the Atlantic Charter.Merseburger’s biography is even more comprehensive than Robert Caro’s of Robert Moses, The Power Broker. It requires some knowledge of German history to fully appreciate, which is perhaps why it hasn’t been translated into English. Pity. This is a biography of grand scope about a larger-than-life figure revered throughout the world. I wish I had the time and ability to translate it for an English-speaking audience. Then more would understand why Brandt was among the consequential personalities of the latter half of the 20th Century. This is a book that deserves a wider audience—even within Germany. Sadly this long review does not do Merseburger or Brandt justice, even outshining Brandt's autobiography.
Fundamentally the proletarian son who went from great statesman to great party leader, who despite all the changes in his political life remain true to the ideals his grandfather in Lübeck once taught him—and that had much to do with his integrity…Ludwig Frahm conveyed a vision of ‘Fatherland of love and justice’ to his grandson. Although it may seem naïve, this vision was his great goal.
October 15, 2014
After nearly three months I finished the Willy Brandt biography, and I'm quite proud of this accomplishment. That is, the accomplishment of finishing an 862 page (without indices) text in advanced German.
The biography itself is wonderful. Well written, compelling, and a fascinating topic. My only complaint is that it assumes a lot of knowledge is already possessed, but often comprehensive studies need to refer to events in passing that probably most people interesting in their topic would know about. Perhaps if I grew up in Germany I would have known more names and events, but Wikipedia filled in where the book didn't give enough. Anyway, if you aren't going to read through this book but read this review, take a look at the Willy Brandt wikipedia page. The man had a really interesting life.
The biography itself is wonderful. Well written, compelling, and a fascinating topic. My only complaint is that it assumes a lot of knowledge is already possessed, but often comprehensive studies need to refer to events in passing that probably most people interesting in their topic would know about. Perhaps if I grew up in Germany I would have known more names and events, but Wikipedia filled in where the book didn't give enough. Anyway, if you aren't going to read through this book but read this review, take a look at the Willy Brandt wikipedia page. The man had a really interesting life.
July 10, 2019
Aus HansBlog.de:
Merseburger wechselt die Tempi zu häufig – Grundzeit ist Präsens, aber mit vielen Schwüngen zu Präteritum, Perfekt und Futur. Der Biograf textet zeitweise zu elegisch, haucht Themen an und erwartet, dass der Leser die Fakten schon kennt - z.B. was sich mit "Brüning", "die Disengagementpläne George F. Kennans und Adam Rapackis", "Rapallo-Anklänge", "gouvernemental" oder "Hallstein-Bonn" verbindet. Auch bei der Guillaume-Affäre erwartet Merseburger fast mehr als Grundkenntnisse: er diskutiert Nachwirkungen und Verschwörungstheorien, liefert aber keine Chronologie der verschiedenen Enthüllungen und Pressereaktionen.
Mitunter gibt es ganze Kaskaden rhetorischer Fragen (z.B. drei rhetorische Fragen hintereinander über acht Zeilen auf S. 38f). Das klingt insgesamt nicht so, als ob Merseburger nüchtern informieren wolle; er möchte scheinbar lieber Meinung wiedergeben und mit Fakten unterfüttern.
Viele Sätze werden fünf Zeilen lang und zu verschachtelt; ein Semikolon hier und da könnte Klärung und Linderung verschaffen, aber dieses Satzzeichen diskriminiert Merseburger, ebenso wie er kaum einmal Absätze durch eine Leerzeile trennt. Aufzählungspunkte erscheinen insgesamt nur zweimal völlig unvermittelt, dabei einmal ohne vorhergehende Überschrift oder Anmoderation per Doppelpunkt. Wahlergebnisse als Balkendiagramme und Kabinettslisten gibt es gar nicht.
Hier einer der Sätze mit Lektoratsbedarf (S. 95, 517 Zeichen, 71 Wörter):
Der Streit zwischen Brand und Epe, der als Co-Redakteur von Kopenhagen nach Oslo übergesiedelt war, entzündete sich an der Frage einer IV. Internationale, deren schnelle Gründung Trotzki vorschwebte, indes Brandt, die SAP und Mot Dag, obschon auch sie sich ja für eine neue Internationale stark machten, statt einer Neugründung erst einmal einen Klärungs und Reifeprozß abwarten wollten, der Gruppierungen in den beiden vorschiedenen Internationalen, der sozialistischen wie der kommunistischen, einbeziehen sollte.
Das Zitat illustriert nicht nur die Syntax, sondern auch den Schwerpunkt Peter Merseburgers (*1928): Zeit- und Ideengeschichte interessiert ihn, nicht aber Brandt als Person. Der 20jährige Willy Brandt wechselt 1933 abrupt von Lübeck nach Oslo, später kommt seine Freundin nach, Brandt heiratet eine andere, fällt bei Reisen mehrfach den Nazis in die Hände, begibt sich ins Bürgerkriegspanien, muss von Norwegen nach Schweden fliehen, heiratet erneut, der Weltkrieg dauert sechs Jahre – wie es Brandt persönlich erging, kaum ein Wort davon, selbst der Weltkrieg findet kaum statt. Brandt als Mensch passiert praktisch nicht, abgesehen von Randbemerkungen und kurzen schon bekannten Einzeilern aus einem Rut-Brandt-Buch. Später folgen ein paar Takte zu Brandt und seinen Söhnen – es geht aber vor allem um politische Meinungsverschiedenheiten und die Rolle der Söhne in der Öffentlichkeit – und noch einmal zwei Sätze zu Brandts letzter Ehefrau.
Stattdessen schildert Merseburger breit ideologische Disputationen verschiedener Parteien, Parteigruppierungen und Splitteruntergrüppchen: Pro/contra SU mit/ohne Stalin? Pro/contra Mehrparteiensystem, viel später pro/contra Neu-/Wiedervereinigung? Brandt war "in politische Sandkastenspiele verliebt", schreibt Merseburger auf Seite 287, und der Biograf zeichnet das getreulich nach. Auch die Gedankenspiele der machtlosen SPD in den späteren 1980er Jahren zu Krieg und Frieden interessieren Merseburger sehr.
Jedenfalls kann man Merseburger nicht vorwerfen, dass er Brandts Zeit im Zweiten Weltkrieg oder im spanischen Bürgerkrieg dramatisiert. Und der frühere Spiegel- und Panorama-Redakteur betont immer wieder, dass Brandt schon sehr früh das Mehrparteiensystem gegenüber dem Einparteienstaat bevorzugt habe, weltoffen und entspannt gegenüber Andersdenkenden gewesen sei. Fast immer lobt Merseburger Brandts Politik nach 1945, ist mit Brandt-Kritikern streng. Gelegentlich zitiert Merseburger auch andere Beobachter, etwa die Journalisten Hans-Ulrich Kempski und Gunter Hofmann oder die Historiker Heinrich August Winkler und Timothy Garton Ash.
Die letzten 120 von etwa 860 Seiten Haupttext (mit Anhang 927 S., 938 g) behandeln Brandts Zeit nach dem Rücktritt vom Kanzleramt 1974. Hier erschlaffte mein Interesse: Brandt jettet nun als Präsident der Sozialistischen Internationale durch die Welt, konferiert später ohne öffentliches Mandat mit Ostberliner und Kreml-Granden, schreibt gedankenvolle Papiere – doch das interessiert eher Parteihistoriker; die Zeit der Regierungsverantwortung in Berlin und Bonn war interessanter, ebenso die jungen Jahre im skandinavischen Exil. Brandt tat 1974ff Gutes für die jungen iberischen Demokratien, aber hier ist Merseburger eher knapp und ich konnte mich nicht recht engagieren. Die Profikritiker der Qualitätspresse und bei hsozkult lobten Merseburgers Buch durchweg in hohen Tönen.
Merseburger wechselt die Tempi zu häufig – Grundzeit ist Präsens, aber mit vielen Schwüngen zu Präteritum, Perfekt und Futur. Der Biograf textet zeitweise zu elegisch, haucht Themen an und erwartet, dass der Leser die Fakten schon kennt - z.B. was sich mit "Brüning", "die Disengagementpläne George F. Kennans und Adam Rapackis", "Rapallo-Anklänge", "gouvernemental" oder "Hallstein-Bonn" verbindet. Auch bei der Guillaume-Affäre erwartet Merseburger fast mehr als Grundkenntnisse: er diskutiert Nachwirkungen und Verschwörungstheorien, liefert aber keine Chronologie der verschiedenen Enthüllungen und Pressereaktionen.
Mitunter gibt es ganze Kaskaden rhetorischer Fragen (z.B. drei rhetorische Fragen hintereinander über acht Zeilen auf S. 38f). Das klingt insgesamt nicht so, als ob Merseburger nüchtern informieren wolle; er möchte scheinbar lieber Meinung wiedergeben und mit Fakten unterfüttern.
Viele Sätze werden fünf Zeilen lang und zu verschachtelt; ein Semikolon hier und da könnte Klärung und Linderung verschaffen, aber dieses Satzzeichen diskriminiert Merseburger, ebenso wie er kaum einmal Absätze durch eine Leerzeile trennt. Aufzählungspunkte erscheinen insgesamt nur zweimal völlig unvermittelt, dabei einmal ohne vorhergehende Überschrift oder Anmoderation per Doppelpunkt. Wahlergebnisse als Balkendiagramme und Kabinettslisten gibt es gar nicht.
Hier einer der Sätze mit Lektoratsbedarf (S. 95, 517 Zeichen, 71 Wörter):
Der Streit zwischen Brand und Epe, der als Co-Redakteur von Kopenhagen nach Oslo übergesiedelt war, entzündete sich an der Frage einer IV. Internationale, deren schnelle Gründung Trotzki vorschwebte, indes Brandt, die SAP und Mot Dag, obschon auch sie sich ja für eine neue Internationale stark machten, statt einer Neugründung erst einmal einen Klärungs und Reifeprozß abwarten wollten, der Gruppierungen in den beiden vorschiedenen Internationalen, der sozialistischen wie der kommunistischen, einbeziehen sollte.
Das Zitat illustriert nicht nur die Syntax, sondern auch den Schwerpunkt Peter Merseburgers (*1928): Zeit- und Ideengeschichte interessiert ihn, nicht aber Brandt als Person. Der 20jährige Willy Brandt wechselt 1933 abrupt von Lübeck nach Oslo, später kommt seine Freundin nach, Brandt heiratet eine andere, fällt bei Reisen mehrfach den Nazis in die Hände, begibt sich ins Bürgerkriegspanien, muss von Norwegen nach Schweden fliehen, heiratet erneut, der Weltkrieg dauert sechs Jahre – wie es Brandt persönlich erging, kaum ein Wort davon, selbst der Weltkrieg findet kaum statt. Brandt als Mensch passiert praktisch nicht, abgesehen von Randbemerkungen und kurzen schon bekannten Einzeilern aus einem Rut-Brandt-Buch. Später folgen ein paar Takte zu Brandt und seinen Söhnen – es geht aber vor allem um politische Meinungsverschiedenheiten und die Rolle der Söhne in der Öffentlichkeit – und noch einmal zwei Sätze zu Brandts letzter Ehefrau.
Stattdessen schildert Merseburger breit ideologische Disputationen verschiedener Parteien, Parteigruppierungen und Splitteruntergrüppchen: Pro/contra SU mit/ohne Stalin? Pro/contra Mehrparteiensystem, viel später pro/contra Neu-/Wiedervereinigung? Brandt war "in politische Sandkastenspiele verliebt", schreibt Merseburger auf Seite 287, und der Biograf zeichnet das getreulich nach. Auch die Gedankenspiele der machtlosen SPD in den späteren 1980er Jahren zu Krieg und Frieden interessieren Merseburger sehr.
Jedenfalls kann man Merseburger nicht vorwerfen, dass er Brandts Zeit im Zweiten Weltkrieg oder im spanischen Bürgerkrieg dramatisiert. Und der frühere Spiegel- und Panorama-Redakteur betont immer wieder, dass Brandt schon sehr früh das Mehrparteiensystem gegenüber dem Einparteienstaat bevorzugt habe, weltoffen und entspannt gegenüber Andersdenkenden gewesen sei. Fast immer lobt Merseburger Brandts Politik nach 1945, ist mit Brandt-Kritikern streng. Gelegentlich zitiert Merseburger auch andere Beobachter, etwa die Journalisten Hans-Ulrich Kempski und Gunter Hofmann oder die Historiker Heinrich August Winkler und Timothy Garton Ash.
Die letzten 120 von etwa 860 Seiten Haupttext (mit Anhang 927 S., 938 g) behandeln Brandts Zeit nach dem Rücktritt vom Kanzleramt 1974. Hier erschlaffte mein Interesse: Brandt jettet nun als Präsident der Sozialistischen Internationale durch die Welt, konferiert später ohne öffentliches Mandat mit Ostberliner und Kreml-Granden, schreibt gedankenvolle Papiere – doch das interessiert eher Parteihistoriker; die Zeit der Regierungsverantwortung in Berlin und Bonn war interessanter, ebenso die jungen Jahre im skandinavischen Exil. Brandt tat 1974ff Gutes für die jungen iberischen Demokratien, aber hier ist Merseburger eher knapp und ich konnte mich nicht recht engagieren. Die Profikritiker der Qualitätspresse und bei hsozkult lobten Merseburgers Buch durchweg in hohen Tönen.
June 5, 2021
Eine umfassende Biographie eines der bedeutendsten Kanzler der Bundesrepublik. Von seiner Prägung in seiner Geburtsstadt Lübeck bis zu seinem Tod als Elder Statesman in Unkel stellt Peter Merseburger den Lebensweg Willy Brands im Kontext seiner politischen Tätigkeit und Ämter dar. Vom linkssozialistischen Politsektierer der Jugendzeit in der Weimarer Republik über den Kampf gegen das Hitler Regime aus dem Exil, die Heimkehr nach Deutschland und die Frontstellung als Regierender Bürgermeister Berlins im kalten Krieg, das Ringen um Normalisierung der innerdeutschen Verhältnisse im Rahmen des Ausgleichs mit den östlichen Kriegsgegnern, die Auseinandersetzungen um den Kurs der SPD in Fragen der Nachrüstung, der Ökologie und Verantwortung für die "dritte" Welt im Rahmen des Nord-Süd Dialogs bis zur Stellung als Vorsitzender der Sozialistischen Internationalen und Begleiter der Wiedervereinigung, stellt Merseburger die Verdienste aber auch die Fehler und Niederlagen eines Menschen dar, der zeitlebens nur schwer enge Bindungen zu anderen aufbauen konnte und der für die härteren Aspekte der politischen Auseinandersetzungen oft zu empfindsam war.
Es entsteht eine vielschichtige Lebensbeschreibung, die sowohl die Person Willy Brand, als auch das geschichtlich, politische Umfeld, in dem er sich bewegte und entfaltete vor dem Leser ausbreitet. Ein wichtiger Baustein für die deutsche Nachkriegsgeschichte.
Es entsteht eine vielschichtige Lebensbeschreibung, die sowohl die Person Willy Brand, als auch das geschichtlich, politische Umfeld, in dem er sich bewegte und entfaltete vor dem Leser ausbreitet. Ein wichtiger Baustein für die deutsche Nachkriegsgeschichte.
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