Willy Brandt (1913-1992) was the fourth Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 to 1974. His varied life and long political career led to long stays in several parts of Germany and Scandinavia. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate of the year 1971 is today often with the exile in the National Socialist time, the division of Germany, too Berlins, and a mood of reform and optimism around 1970.
Life
Willy Brandt was born out of wedlock in 1913 Lübeck Born working class; his original name was Karl Herbert Frahm, Willy Brandt was a name that he used in exile and under which he later became naturalized in Germany. He joined the labor movement as a child and later joined the SPD, but was then active in a left-wing splinter group for a while. The high school graduate would have liked to become a journalist and wanted to study, but due to lack of funds, he began a traineeship in a shipping company in 1932.
In 1933, when the National Socialists began to rule Germany, Frahm emigrated to Norway. There in Oslo he was journalistic and politically active and reported in 1937 from the Spanish Civil War. When Norway was occupied by Germany in 1940, he managed to escape to Sweden. In Stockholm he approached the SPD again and came to Germany in 1945 as a Norwegian reporter. In 1948, ten years after his expatriation by the National Socialists, he became a German citizen again.
Willy Brandt became a member of the German Bundestag in 1949, President of the Berlin House of Representatives in 1955, and two years later the Governing Mayor of Berlin. As such, he became popular in West Germany and rose in the SPD. During his term of office, John F. Kennedy visited in 1963. In 1966 Brandt followed suit Bonn, the then federal capital. First he was Foreign Minister, then from 1969 Federal Chancellor. Brandt showed a certain degree of official fatigue at times and resigned in 1974 after the Guillaume affair. He was succeeded by Helmut Schmidt.
Brandt, however, remained chairman of the SPD (1964-1987) and was also active internationally as chairman of the Socialist International and the North-South Commission. After experiencing reunification, he died in 1992 in Uncle near Bonn.
Sites
This is the central museum about Willy Brandt Willy Brandt House in Lübeck in northern Germany. The exhibition in six rooms presents his life and the house also organizes conferences. Incidentally, the Günther Grass House is right next door; the writer Grass campaigned for Brandt in the 1960s.
Not in the city of birth Lübeck, but in his last place of residence Uncle that is near Bonn Willy Brandt Forum. The exhibition there focuses more on Brandt's politics and of course his time in Unkel.
Third, there is one in Berlin (Unter den Linden 62-68) Forum Willy Brandt Berlin, the headquarters of the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation. It also has an exhibition about Brandt and organizes events.
This is particularly important for scientific research Willy Brandt Archive at the SPD-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Bonn. Meetings and other events related to Brandt also take place there.
That is above all what is associated with Brandt in Berlin Schöneberg Town Hall, which was the town hall of West Berlin during the division. In Bonn, Brandt first worked in the Foreign Office, then in the Palais Schaumburg (the former Federal Chancellery). The latter is expected until the end of 2023 not to be visited due to renovation. Even as Federal Chancellor, Brandt did not live in the Chancellor's bungalow from Ludwig Erhard's time in office, but continued to live in the Service villa of the Foreign Minister. Therefore, there is relatively little to see in Bonn itself with reference to Brandt.
The Willy-Brandt-Platz in Erfurt has a certain special meaning over many other places of the same name in Germany, because in 1970 Brandt met the GDR Prime Minister there. On one side is the main train station, where Brandt arrived, and on the other is the Hotel Erfurter Hof, where Brandt stayed and from which he waved to the people of Erfurt. There one remembers Neon letters of the visit.
His grave is in the Zehlendorf forest cemetery in Berlin.
Monuments and miscellaneous
Of Willy Brandt's sculptures, the best known is certainly the one in the SPD party headquarters in Berlin. A smaller copy is in Stockholm's Willy Brandt Park.
There are countless streets, schools and other objects named after Willy Brandt. The party headquarters of the SPD in Berlin, the Willy Brandt House, is perhaps worth mentioning.
A Norwegian-German Willy Brandt Foundation is based at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo; there is also a support association in Berlin. In addition to the award of scholarships and a Willy Brandt Prize, the activities also include events on political topics. A German-Israeli-Palestinian peace project, which is also supported by the SPD, has taken the name Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem given. The center organizes events. The organizations in Oslo / Berlin and Jerusalem are of a more general nature and are not primarily concerned with Willy Brandt.
Sculpture in Willy Brandt Park in Stockholm
Willy Brandt Monument in Nuremberg
Willy Brandt House in Berlin (SPD federal headquarters)
literature
As an introduction to Brandt's life, the not-too-thick biography of Peter Merseburger is perhaps best, Willy Brandt, 1913-1992. Visionary and realist.
