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Erich Honecker
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
In office May 3, 1971 – October 18‚ 1989
Preceded by	Walter Ulbricht
Succeeded by	Egon Krenz
Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic
In office 29 October 1976 – 18 October 1989
Preceded by	Willi Stoph
Succeeded by	Egon Krenz
Chairman of the National Defense Council of the German Democratic Republic
In office 1971–1989
Preceded by	Walter Ulbricht
Succeeded by	Egon Krenz
Personal details
Born	(1912-08-25)August 25, 1912 Neunkirchen, German Empire
Died	May 29, 1994(1994-05-29) (aged 81) Santiago, Chile
Nationality	German
Political party	Communist Party of Germany (1922–1946) Socialist Unity Party of Germany (1946–1989) Communist Party of Germany (1990–1994)
Spouse(s)	Edith Baumann (1950–1953) Margot Feist Honecker (b. 1927)
Profession	Politician
Religion	None (atheist)

Erich Honecker (German: [ˈeːʁɪç ˈhɔnɛkɐ]; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German socialist politician who led the German Democratic Republic as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989, serving as Head of State as well after Willi Stoph's relinquishment of that post in 1976.

Following the definite end of the Cold War, Honecker refused all but cosmetic changes and was ousted by the party in late 1989 and removed from power. Following the German reunification he successfully evaded prosecution for human rights abuses committed under his regime, finally settling down with his family in Chile in 1993, dying the following year from liver cancer.

Origins and early political career[link]

Erich Honecker, watched by his mentor Walter Ulbricht at the 5th Party Congress, 1958

Honecker was born on Max-Braun-Straße in Neunkirchen, now Saarland, as the son of Wilhelm Honecker, a coal miner and political activist,^[1] who in 1905 had married Caroline Catharina Weidenhof. There were six children born to the family: Katharina (Käthe), Wilhelm (Willi), Frieda, Erich, Gertrud (b. 1917; m. Hoppstädter), and Karl-Robert.

After World War I, the Territory of the Saar Basin was handed over to France. This change from the strict rule of Baron von Stumm to French military occupation provided the backdrop for what Wilhelm Honecker understood as proletarian exploitation, and introduced young Erich to communism.^[1] In 1922 at 10 years old, he joined the Spartacus League, then the Young Communist League of Germany (KJVD), the youth section of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), in 1926^[1] and joined the KPD itself in 1929. Between 1928 and 1930 he worked as a roofer, but did not finish his apprenticeship. Thereafter he was sent to Moscow to study at the International Lenin School and for the rest of his life remained a full-time politician.

He returned to Germany in 1931 and was arrested in 1935, two years after the Nazis had come to power. In 1937, he was sentenced to ten years for Communist activities and remained a prisoner until the end of World War II. At the end of the war, Honecker resumed activity in the party under leader Walter Ulbricht, and, in 1946, became one of the first members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED), which was formed by the merger of the KPD and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany.

Following the SED victory in the October 1946 elections, Honecker took his place amongst the SED leadership in the first postwar East German parliament, the German People's Congress (Deutscher Volkskongress). The German Democratic Republic was proclaimed on 7 October 1949 with the adoption of a new constitution, establishing a political system similar to that of the Soviet Union. Honecker was a candidate member for the secretariat of the Central Committee in 1950; by 1958, he had become a full member of the Politbüro.

Leadership of East Germany[link]

During a National People's Army exercise in southern East Germany, 1960: Ivan Yakubovsky, Otto Grotewohl, Erich Honecker, Heinz Hoffmann

In 1961, Honecker, as the Central Committee secretary for security matters, was in charge of the building of the Berlin Wall. In 1971, he initiated a political power struggle that led, with Soviet support, to his becoming the new leader, replacing Walter Ulbricht as First Secretary of the SED Central Committee and as chairman of the National Defense Council. In 1976, he also became Chairman of the Council of State (Vorsitzender des Staatsrats der DDR) and thus the de facto head of state.

Erich Honecker, 1974

Under Honecker's leadership, the GDR adopted a programme of "consumer socialism", which resulted in a marked improvement in living standards already the highest among the Eastern bloc countries. More attention was placed on the availability of consumer goods, and the construction of new housing was accelerated, with Honecker promising to "settle the housing problem as an issue of social relevance".^[2] Yet, despite improved living conditions, internal dissent was not tolerated. Around 125 East German citizens ^[3] were killed during this period while trying to cross the border into West Germany or West Berlin.

In foreign relations, Honecker renounced the objective of a unified Germany and adopted the "defensive" position of ideological Abgrenzung (demarcation). He combined loyalty to the USSR with flexibility toward détente, especially in relation to rapprochement with West Germany. In September 1987, he became the first East German head of state to visit West Germany. He was received with full state honours by West Germany's Helmut Kohl—an act that seemed to confirm West Germany's acceptance of East Germany's existence.

In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost and perestroika, reforms to liberalise communism. Honecker and the East German government refused to implement similar reforms in the GDR, with Honecker reportedly telling Gorbachev: "We have done our perestroika, we have nothing to restructure".^[4] Gorbachev grew to dislike Honecker, and by 1988 was lumping Honecker, along with Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov, Czechoslovakia's Gustáv Husák and Romania's Nicolae Ceaușescu as a "Gang of Four"—a group of inflexible hardliners unwilling to make necessary reforms.^[5]

Nonetheless, Honecker appeared to be on solid footing. However, trouble appeared on the horizon in August 1989, when Hungary dismantled its section of the Iron Curtain, and opened its border with Austria. Several thousand East Germans fled to Hungary, in hopes of going to West Germany by way of Austria. Per a 1969 treaty, the Hungarian government should have forced the East Germans back home. However, after a week, the Hungarians relented and let the refugees pass into Austria, telling their outraged East German counterparts that international treaties on refugees took precedence. Honecker was recovering from bladder cancer, leaving his colleagues unable to act decisively.^[5]

Honecker was back in charge by September, and immediately had to deal with a new refugee problem. Several thousand East Germans tried to go to West Germany by way of Czechoslovakia, only to have that government bar them from passing. Several thousand of them headed straight for the West German embassy in Prague and demanded safe passage to West Germany. With some reluctance, Honecker allowed them to go—but forced them to go back through East Germany on sealed trains and stripped them of their East German citizenship. Several members of the SED Politbüro realized this was a serious blunder and made plans to get rid of him. Honecker got another rude shock at the GDR's 40th anniversary gala in September, when several hundred members of the Free German Youth—the SED's supposed future vanguard—began chanting, "Gorby, help us! Gorby, save us!" ^[5]

As the reform movement spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe, mass demonstrations against the East German government erupted, most prominently in Leipzig—the first of several demonstrations which took place on Monday night across the country. In response, an elite paratroop unit was dispatched to Leipzig—almost certainly on Honecker's orders, since he was commander-in-chief of the army. A bloodbath was only averted when local party officials themselves ordered the troops to pull back. In the following week, Honecker faced a torrent of criticism. This gave his Politburo comrades the impulse they needed to replace him, with Gorbachev's tacit approval. On 18 October 1989, they voted to oust Honecker and replace him with Egon Krenz.

Post-1989[link]

After the GDR was dissolved in October 1990, the Honeckers stayed with the family of the Lutheran pastor Uwe Holmer. Honecker then stayed in a Soviet military hospital near Berlin before later fleeing Germany with Margot Honecker to Moscow, to avoid prosecution over charges of Cold War crimes. He was accused by the German government of involvement in the deaths of 192 East Germans who tried to leave the GDR in violation of anti-Republikflucht laws. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Honecker took refuge in the Chilean embassy in Moscow, but was extradited by the Yeltsin administration to Germany in 1992. He was officially expelled from the reformed SED-PDS before the trial opened. He then joined the very small new Communist Party.^[6] When the trial formally opened in early 1993, Honecker was released due to ill health and on 13 January of that year moved to Chile to live with his daughter Sonja, her Chilean husband Leo Yáñez, and their son Roberto. He died of liver cancer in Santiago.

Personal[link]

Honecker married Edith Baumann in 1950 and divorced her in 1953. They had a daughter, Erika (b. 1950). In 1953 he married Margot Feist and they remained married until his death. They had a daughter, Sonja, born in 1952. Margot Honecker served for more than 20 years as the GDR Minister for People's Education.

It is claimed that Honecker was addicted to game hunting and was directly involved in the over-hunting of a number of native game species. Such was his passion that animals bred and reared in neighbouring communist countries had to be supplied for his regular hunting parties.^[7]

Famous quotes[link]

• "The Wall will be standing in 50 and even in 100 years, if the reasons for it are not yet removed." (Berlin, 19 January 1989) (Original: "Die Mauer wird in 50 und auch in 100 Jahren noch bestehen bleiben, wenn die dazu vorhandenen Gründe noch nicht beseitigt sind")
• "Neither an ox nor a donkey is able to stop the progress of socialism." (A rhyming couplet in the original German: "Den Sozialismus in seinem Lauf hält weder Ochs noch Esel auf", Berlin, 7 October 1989), one of Honecker's favorite adages, originally coined by August Bebel. (The ox and the donkey are symbolic of stubborn stupidity in German culture.)
• "The future belongs to socialism" (Original: Die Zukunft gehört dem Sozialismus) (early 1980s)
• "Always forwards, never backwards." (Original: Vorwärts immer, rückwärts nimmer) (early 1980s)

In popular culture[link]

Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker. Painting #25 Dimitri Vrubel, "My God, help me outlive this deadly love"

• A picture of Honecker kissing Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev became famous and an icon of the Cold War.^[8] The passionate kiss depicted was in a satirical mural entitled My God, help me to survive this deadly love, (German: Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben), sometimes referred to as the Fraternal Kiss (German: Bruderkuß), on the Berlin Wall (East Side Gallery), painted by artist Dmitri Vrubel.

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Wilsford, David. (1995) Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Further reading[link]

• Fulbrook, Mary. (2008) The people's state: East German society from Hitler to Honecker. Yale University Press.
• Honecker, Erich. (1981) Aus meinem Leben. New York : Pergamon, 1981. ISBN 0-08-024532-3.

External links[link]

	Germany portal
	Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Erich Honecker

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Erich Honecker

• CNN Cold War – Profile: Erich Honecker
• Honecker im Internet (in German)
• www.warheroes.ru – Erich Honecker (in Russian)
• Welcoming Address to 1979 Session of the World Peace Council Erich Honecker's speech to the WPC
• A Successful Policy Seared to the Needs of the People Volkskammer pamphlet including material by Honecker

v t e Heads of State of the German Democratic Republic Presidents Wilhelm Pieck Chairmen of the State Council Walter Ulbricht Willi Stoph Erich Honecker Egon Krenz Manfred Gerlach Presidents of the People's Chamber Sabine Bergmann-Pohl

Oskar Lafontaine
Mayor of Saarbrücken
In office 1976 – 9 April 1985
Preceded by	Fritz Schuster
Succeeded by	Hans-Jürgen Koebnick
8th Minister-President of Saarland
In office 9 April 1985 – 10 November 1998
Preceded by	Werner Zeyer
Succeeded by	Reinhard Klimmt
Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
In office 16 November 1995 – 12 March 1999
Preceded by	Rudolf Scharping
Succeeded by	Gerhard Schröder
Federal Minister of Finance
In office 27 October 1998 – 18 March 1999
Preceded by	Theodor Waigel
Succeeded by	Hans Eichel
Co-Chairman of The Left
In office 16 June 2007 – 15 May 2010 Serving with Lothar Bisky
Preceded by	New title
Succeeded by	Klaus Ernst & Gesine Lötzsch
Personal details
Born	(1943-09-16) 16 September 1943 (age 68) Saarlouis-Roden, Germany
Nationality	German
Political party	Social Democratic Party (until 2005) The Left
Spouse(s)	Ingrid Bachert (1967-1982) Margret Müller (1982-1988) (1 son) Christa Müller (1993-) (separated) (1 son)
Domestic partner	Sahra Wagenknecht (2011-)
Religion	Roman Catholic

Oskar Lafontaine (German pronunciation: [ˈlafɔntɛn]; born 16 September 1943) is a German politician who served in the government of Germany as Minister of Finance from 1998 to 1999. Previously he was Minister-President of the state of Saarland from 1985 to 1998, and he was also Chairman of the Social Democratic Party from 1995 to 1999.

Beginning in 2007, Lafontaine was co-chairman of The Left. After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2009, he announced his resignation from federal political functions in January 2010, citing health reasons.^[1]

Family and education[link]

Lafontaine was born in Saarlouis into a family of craftsmen. His father, Hans Lafontaine, was a professional baker and was killed serving in World War II. He spent his childhood living with his mother, Catherine, (Born Katharina Ferner) and twin brother, Hans, in Dillingen.

Lafontaine attended a Catholic episcopal boarding institution in Prüm and there was educated at the Regino-Gymnasium, a public school. He left school in 1962 and received a scholarship from Cusanuswerk, the scholarship body of the Catholic Church in Germany, to study physics at the universities of Bonn and Saarland. Lafontaine graduated in 1969; his thesis concerned the production of barium titanate crystals. He worked for Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft Saarbrücken until 1974, serving on its board from 1971.

Lafontaine has been married three times and has two sons by his second and third wives. He is currently married to Christa Müller, who leads a campaign against genital mutilation in Africa. The couple is now separated. In November 2011, Lafontaine officially presented fellow politician Sahra Wagenknecht as his new girlfriend, who is 26 years his junior.^[2] Lafontaine is a Roman Catholic.^[3]

Political rise[link]

Lafontaine rose to prominence locally as mayor of Saarbrücken and became more widely known as a critic of chancellor Helmut Schmidt's support for the NATO plan to deploy Pershing II missiles in Germany. From 1985 to 1998 he served as prime minister of the Saarland. In this position he struggled to preserve the industrial base of the state, which was based on steel production and coal mining with subsidies, and served as President of the Bundesrat in 1992/93.

Chancellor candidacy[link]

Lafontaine election poster, 1990

Lafontaine was the SPD's candidate for Chancellor in the German federal election of 1990 following the reunification of Germany. During the campaign he was attacked with a knife by a mentally deranged woman after a speech in Cologne. His carotid artery was slashed and he remained in a critical condition for several days.

Political comeback[link]

At the "Mannheim convention" in 1995, he was elected chairman of the SPD in a surprise move, replacing Rudolf Scharping. He was mainly responsible for bringing the whole political weight of the SPD to bear against Helmut Kohl and his CDU party, rejecting bipartisan cooperation that had characterized German politics for many years. Lafontaine argued that any help given to Kohl would only lengthen his unavoidable demise.

After this strategy gave the SPD an unexpectedly clear victory at the polls in September 1998, he was appointed Federal Minister of Finance in the first government of Gerhard Schröder.

Minister of Finance[link]

During his short tenure as Minister of Finance, Lafontaine was a main bogeyman of UK Eurosceptics. This was because, among other things, he had called for the prompt tax harmonisation of the European Union, which would have resulted in an increase in UK taxes. In 1998, English tabloid "The Sun" called Lafontaine "Europe's most dangerous man". On 11 March 1999, he resigned from all his official and party offices, claiming that "lack of cooperation" in the cabinet had become unbearable. Until the formation of the Left Party he was known for his attacks against the Schroeder government in the tabloid Bild-Zeitung, which is generally considered conservative.

Leaving the SPD/Formation of The Left party[link]

On 24 May 2005 Lafontaine left the SPD. After two weeks of speculation it was announced on 10 June that he would run as the lead candidate for The Left party (Die Linke), a coalition of the Labor and Social Justice Party (WASG), which is based in western Germany, and the Left Party. PDS, which was the successor to the ruling East German Socialist Unity Party (SED).^[4] Lafontaine joined the WASG on 18 June 2005 and was selected to head their list for the 2005 Federal Election in North Rhine-Westphalia on the same day. Moreover he also unsuccessfully contested the Saarbrücken constituency. Nevertheless, the result of the Linkspartei in the Saarland was by far the best in any of the federal states in the West of Germany.

In 2007, when the Left Party was formed in a merger between 'Left Party.PDS' and WASG, he became chairman alongside Lothar Bisky.

In May 2009, he declared that "Financial capitalism has failed. We need to democratize the economy. The workforce needs to have a far greater say in their companies than has been the case so far."^[5]

Criticism[link]

An article by Lafontaine on Erich Honecker, state and party leader of the German Democratic Republic and a fellow Saarlander, in the magazine Der Spiegel was criticised as laudatory by many observers. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he tarnished his left-wing credentials with a plea for pro-business policies and a call for the reduction of the influx of Germans from Eastern Europe and asylum-seekers.

Lafontaine lives in a manor-like house, commonly known as the "palace of social justice" (Palast der sozialen Gerechtigkeit).^[6] When asked about whether this could be in conflict with his socialist ideas, Lafontaine said politicians of the Left don't have to be poor, but they have to fight against poverty.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Oskar Lafontaine

• (German) www.die-linke.de – The German Left Party
• (German) Oskar Lafontaine Information on the website of the parliamentary group Die Linke
• Will Germany Go Left of the Left? by Markus Deggerich, Der Spiegel, Sept 25 2009

v t e Finance Ministers of Germany German Empire (1871–1918) Adolf von Scholz Franz Emil Emanuel von Burchard Karl Rudolf Jacobi Baron Helmuth von Maltzahn Arthur von Posadowsky-Wehner Max Franz Guido von Thielmann Baron Hermann von Stengel Reinhold Sydow Adolf Wermuth Hermann Kühn Karl Helfferich Count Siegfried von Roedern Weimar Republic (1918–1933) Eugen Schiffer Bernhard Dernburg Matthias Erzberger Joseph Wirth Andreas Hermes Rudolf Hilferding Hans Luther Otto von Schlieben Hans Luther Peter Reinhold Heinrich Köhler Rudolf Hilferding Paul Moldenhauer Heinrich Brüning Hermann R. Dietrich Third Reich (1933–1945) Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk East Germany (1949–1990) Hans Loch Willy Rumpf Siegfried Böhm Werner Schmieder Ernst Höfner Uta Nickel Walter Romberg Werner Skowron Federal Republic of Germany (1949–) Fritz Schäffer Franz Etzel Heinz Starke Rolf Dahlgrün Kurt Schmücker Franz Josef Strauss Alex Möller Karl Schiller Helmut Schmidt Hans Apel Hans Matthöfer Manfred Lahnstein Gerhard Stoltenberg Theodor Waigel Oskar Lafontaine Hans Eichel Peer Steinbrück Wolfgang Schäuble

v t e Presidents of the Bundesrat (Federal Council) Karl Arnold • Hans Ehard • Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf • Reinhold Maier • Georg August Zinn • Peter Altmeier • Kai-Uwe von Hassel • Kurt Sieveking • Willy Brandt • Wilhelm Kaisen • Franz-Josef Röder • Franz Meyers • Kurt Georg Kiesinger • Georg Diederichs • Helmut Lemke • Klaus Schütz • Herbert Weichmann • Franz-Josef Röder • Hans Koschnick • Heinz Kühn • Alfons Goppel • Hans Filbinger • Alfred Kubel • Albert Osswald • Bernhard Vogel • Gerhard Stoltenberg • Dietrich Stobbe • Hans-Ulrich Klose • Werner Zeyer • Johannes Rau • Franz Josef Strauss • Lothar Späth • Ernst Albrecht • Holger Börner • Walter Wallmann • Björn Engholm • Walter Momper • Henning Voscherau • Alfred Gomolka • Berndt Seite • Oskar Lafontaine • Klaus Wedemeier • Edmund Stoiber • Erwin Teufel • Gerhard Schröder • Hans Eichel • Roland Koch • Kurt Biedenkopf • Kurt Beck • Klaus Wowereit • Wolfgang Böhmer • Dieter Althaus • Matthias Platzeck • Peter Harry Carstensen • Harald Ringstorff • Ole von Beust • Peter Müller • Jens Böhrnsen

v t e Ministers-President of Saarland Protectorate (1947-1956) Johannes Hoffmann Heinrich Welsch Hubert Ney Modern Saarland (since 1957) Egon Reinert Franz-Josef Röder Werner Klumpp (interim) Werner Zeyer Oskar Lafontaine Reinhard Klimmt Peter Müller Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer

v t e Chairmen of the Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD (1890–1933) Paul Singer / Alwin Gerisch August Bebel / Paul Singer August Bebel / Hugo Haase Hugo Haase / Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert / Philipp Scheidemann Otto Wels / Herman Müller Arthur Crispien / Otto Wels / Herman Müller Arthur Crispien / Otto Wels Arthur Crispien / Otto Wels / Hans Vogel SPD-in-exile (1933–1945) Otto Wels / Hans Vogel Hans Vogel SPD (since 1946) Kurt Schumacher Erich Ollenhauer Willy Brandt Hans-Jochen Vogel Björn Engholm Rudolf Scharping Oskar Lafontaine Gerhard Schröder Franz Müntefering Matthias Platzeck Kurt Beck Franz Müntefering Sigmar Gabriel

Willy Brandt
Chancellor of Germany
In office 21 October 1969 – 7 May 1974
President	Gustav Heinemann
Preceded by	Kurt Georg Kiesinger
Succeeded by	Helmut Schmidt
President of the German Bundesrat
In office 1957–1958
President	Theodor Heuss
Preceded by	Kurt Sieveking
Succeeded by	Wilhelm Kaisen
Vice-Chancellor of Germany
In office 1 December 1966 – 21 October 1969
Preceded by	Hans-Christoph Seebohm
Succeeded by	Walter Scheel
Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 1 December 1966 – 20 October 1969
Preceded by	Gerhard Schröder
Succeeded by	Walter Scheel
Mayor of West Berlin
In office 1957–1966
Preceded by	Otto Suhr
Succeeded by	Heinrich Albertz
Personal details
Born	Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm (1913-12-18)18 December 1913 Lübeck, Free City of Lübeck, (German Empire)
Died	8 October 1992(1992-10-08) (aged 78) Unkel, Germany
Political party	SPD
Occupation	Worker, Journalist, Lecturer, Activist, Politician
Religion	Lutheran
Signature

Willy Brandt (born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; German pronunciation: [ˈvɪli ˈbʁant]; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1964–1987.

Brandt's most important legacy was 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.

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

Early life, the war[link]

Willy Brandt was born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm in the Free City of Lübeck (German Empire) to Martha Frahm, an unwed mother who worked as a cashier for a department store. His father was an accountant from Hamburg named John Möller, whom Brandt never met. As his mother worked six days a week, he was mainly brought up by his mother's stepfather Ludwig Frahm and his second wife Dora.

After passing his Abitur in 1932 at Johanneum zu Lübeck, 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 Independent Labour Party in Britain. In 1933, using his connections with the port and its ships, he left Germany for Norway 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 was in Germany from September to December 1936, disguised as a Norwegian student named Gunnar Gaasland. He was married to Gertrud Meyer from Lübeck in a fictitious marriage to protect her from deportation. Meyer had joined Brandt in Norway in July 1933. In 1937, during the Civil War, Brandt 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 was not identified as 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 lectured in Sweden on 1 December 1940 at Bommersvik college about problems experienced by the social democrats in Nazi Germany and the occupied countries at the start of World War II. In exile in Norway and Sweden Brandt learned Norwegian and Swedish. Brandt spoke Norwegian fluently, and retained a close relationship with Norway.

In late 1946, Brandt returned to Berlin, working for the Norwegian government. In 1948, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and became a German citizen again, formally adopting the pseudonym, Willy Brandt, as his legal name.

Politician[link]

Brandt meeting John F. Kennedy in 1961

From 3 October 1957, to 1966, Willy Brandt was Mayor of West Berlin, during a period of increasing tension in East-West relations that led to the construction of the Berlin Wall. In Brandt's first year as Mayor, he also served as the President of the Bundesrat in Bonn. Brandt was outspoken against the Soviet repression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and against Nikita Khrushchev's 1958 proposal that Berlin receive the status of a "free city". He was supported by the influential publisher Axel Springer. As Mayor of West Berlin, Brandt accomplished much in the way of urban development. New hotels, office-blocks and flats were constructed, while both Schloss Charlottenburg and the Reichstag were restored. Sections of the "Stadtring" Bundesautobahn 100 inner-city motorway were opened, while a major housing programme was carried out, with roughly 20,000 new dwellings built each year during his time in office.^[1]

At the start of 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy saw Brandt as the wave of the future in West Germany and was hoping he would replace Konrad Adenauer as chancellor following elections later in the year.^[2] Kennedy made this preference clear by inviting Brandt, the West German opposition leader, to an official meeting at the White House a month before meeting with Adenauer, the country’s leader. The diplomatic snub strained relations between Kennedy and Adenauer further during an especially tense time for Berlin.^[3] However, following the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, Brandt was disappointed and angry with Kennedy. Speaking in Berlin three days later, Brandt criticized Kennedy, asserting "Berlin expects more than words. It expects political action." He also wrote Kennedy a highly critical public letter in which he warned that the development was liable "to arouse doubts about the ability of the three [Allied] Powers to react and their determination" and he called the situation "a state of accomplished extortion"."^[4]

Brandt became the Chairman of the SPD in 1964, a post that he retained until 1987, longer than any other party Chairman since its foundation by August Bebel. Brandt was the SPD candidate for the Chancellorship in 1961, but he lost to Konrad Adenauer's conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). In 1965, Brandt ran again, but lost to the popular Ludwig Erhard. Erhard's government was short-lived, however, and in 1966 a grand coalition between the SPD and CDU was formed, with Brandt as Foreign Minister and Vice-Chancellor.

Chancellor[link]

At the 1969 elections, again with Brandt as the leading candidate, the SPD became stronger, and after three weeks of negotiations, the SPD formed a coalition government with the smaller Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP). Brandt was elected Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Foreign policy[link]

Willy Brandt with French president Georges Pompidou in Cologne, 3 July 1972.

As Chancellor, Brandt developed his Neue Ostpolitik (New Eastern Policy). Brandt was active in creating a degree of rapprochement with East Germany, and also in improving relations with the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern Bloc (communist) 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 the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The uprising occurred during the Nazi German military occupation of Poland, and the monument is to those killed by the German troops who suppressed the uprising and deported remaining ghetto residents to the concentration camps for extermination.

Time magazine in the USA named Brandt as its Man of the Year for 1970, stating, "Willy Brandt is in effect seeking to end World War II by bringing about a fresh relationship between East and West. He is trying to accept the real situation in Europe, which has lasted for 25 years, but he is also trying to bring about a new reality in his bold approach to the Soviet Union and the East Bloc."^[5]

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

Brandt negotiated a peace treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland, and agreements on the boundaries between the two countries, signifying the official and long-delayed end of World War II. Brandt negotiated parallel treaties and agreements between the Federal Republic and Czechoslovakia.

In West Germany, Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik was extremely controversial, dividing the populace into two camps: one camp, embracing all of the conservative parties and most notably the victims i.e. those German-speaking, West German residents and their subsequent families who were driven west ("die Heimatvertriebenen") by Stalinist ethnic cleansing from Historical Eastern Germany, especially the part that was arbitrarily given to Poland by the Stalinists; western Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland); and the rest of Eastern Europe, such as in Romania. These groups of displaced Germans and their descendants loudly voiced their opposition to Brandt's policy, calling it "illegal" and "high treason".

A different camp supported and encouraged Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik as aiming at "Wandel durch Annäherung" ("change through rapprochement"), encouraging change through a policy of engagement with the (communist) Eastern Bloc, rather than trying to isolate those countries diplomatically and commercially. Brandt's supporters claim that the policy did help to break down the Eastern Bloc's "siege mentality", and also helped to increase its awareness of the contradictions in its brand of Socialism/Communism, which – together with other events – eventually led to the downfall of Eastern European Communism and Stalinism.

Domestic policies[link]

Political and social changes[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

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") faced economic turbulence. The German baby-boom generation wanted to come to terms with the deeply conservative, bourgeois, and demanding parent generation. The baby-boomer students were the most outspoken, and they accused their "parental generation" of being outdated and old-fashioned and even of having a Nazi past. Compared to their forebears, the "skeptical generation" was much more capricious, willing to embrace more extreme socialist ideology^{[citation needed]} (such as Maoism), and public heroes^{[citation needed]} (such as Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara), while living a looser and more promiscuous lifestyle. Students and young apprentices could afford to move out of their parents' homes, and left-wing politics was considered to be chic, as well as taking part in American-style political demonstrations against having American military forces in South Vietnam.

Brandt's popularity[link]

Brandt's predecessor as Chancellor, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, had been a member of the Nazi party, and was a more old-fashioned conservative-liberal intellectual. Brandt, having fought the Nazis and having faced down communist Eastern Germany during several crises while he was the Mayor of Berlin, became a controversial, but credible, figure in several different factions. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kiesinger's grand coalition cabinet, Brandt helped to gain further international approval for Western Germany, and he laid the foundation stones for his future Neue Ostpolitik. There was a wide public-opinion gap between Kiesinger and Brandt in the West German polls.

Willy Brandt as the Chancellor talking to the parliament, 1971

Both men had come to their own terms with the new baby boomer lifestyles. Kiesinger considered them to be "a shameful crowd of long-haired drop-outs who needed a bath and someone to discipline them". On the other hand, Brandt needed a while to get into contact with, and to earn credibility among, the "Ausserparlamentarische Opposition" (APO) ("the extra-parliamentary opposition"). The students questioned West German society in general, seeking social, legal, and political reforms. Also, the unrest led to a renaissance of right-wing parties in some of the Bundeslands' (German states under the Bundesrepublik) Parliaments.

Brandt, however, represented a figure of change, and he followed a course of social, legal, and political reforms. In 1969, Brandt gained a small majority by forming a coalition with the FDP. In his first speech before the Bundestag as the Chancellor, Brandt set forth his political course of reforms ending the speech with his famous words, "Wir wollen mehr Demokratie wagen" (literally: "We want to take a chance on more Democracy", or more figuratively, "Let's dare more democracy"). This speech made Brandt, as well as the Social Democratic Party, popular among most of the students and other young West German baby-boomers who dreamed of a country that would be more open and more colorful than the frugal and still somewhat-authoritarian Bundesrepublik that had been built after World War II. However, Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik lost him a large part of the German refugee voters from East Germany, who had been significantly pro-SPD in the postwar years.

Chancellor of domestic reform[link]

Although Brandt is perhaps best known for his achievements in foreign policy, his government oversaw the implementation of a broad range of social reforms, and was known as a "Kanzler der inneren Reformen" ('Chancellor of domestic reform').^[6] According to the historian David Childs, “Brandt was anxious that his government should be a reforming administration and a number of reforms were embarked upon”.^[7] Within a few years, the education budget rose from 16 billion to 50 billion DM, while one out of every three DM spent by the new government was devoted to welfare purposes. As noted by the journalist and historian Marion Dönhoff,

“People were seized by a completely new feeling about life. A mania for large scale reforms spread like wildfire, affecting schools, universities, the administration, family legislation. In the autumn of 1970 Jurgen Wischnewski of the SPD declared, ‘Every week more than three plans for reform come up for decision in cabinet and in the Assembly.’ ”^[8]

According to Helmut Schmidt, Willy Brandt's domestic reform programme had accomplished more than any previous programme for a comparable period.^[9] A number of liberal social reforms were instituted^[10] whilst the welfare state was significantly expanded (with total public spending on social programs nearly doubling between 1969 and 1975),^[11] with health, housing, and social welfare legislation bringing about welcome improvements,^[12] and by the end of the Brandt Chancellorship West Germany had one of the most advanced systems of welfare in the world.^[6]

Amongst his achievements as Chancellor were:

• Substantial increases in social security benefits such as injury and sickness benefits,^[6] pensions,^[13] unemployment benefits,^[14] housing allowances,^[15] basic subsistence aid allowances,^[16] and family allowances and living allowances.^[17] In the government’s first budget, sickness benefits were increased by 9.3%, pensions for war widows by 25%, pensions for the war wounded by 16%, and recruitment pensions by 5%.^[18] Numerically, pensions went up by 6.4% (1970), 5.5% (1971), 9.5% (1972), 11.4% (1973), and 11.2% (1974). Adjusted for changes in the annual price index, pensions went up in real terms by 3.1% (1970), 0.3% (1971), 3.9% (1972), 4.4% (1973), and 4.2% (1974).^[19] Between 1972 and 1974, the purchasing power of pensioners increased by 19%.^[20]
• Improvements in sick pay provision.^[6]
• An expanded sickness insurance scheme, with the inclusion of preventative treatment.^[21]
• The allocation of more funds towards housing, transportation, schools, and communication.^[22]
• The index-linking of the income limit for compulsory sickness insurance to changes in the wage level (1970).^[23]
• The incorporation of pupils, students and children in kindergartens into the accident insurance scheme (1971),^[24] which benefited 11 million children.^[25]
• The introduction of generous public stipends for students to cover their living costs.^[10]
• The conversion of West German universities from elite schools into mass institutions.^[14]
• The Farmers’ Sickness Insurance Law (1972), which introduced compulsory sickness insurance for independent farmers, family workers in agriculture, and pensioners under the farmers’ pension scheme, medical benefits for all covered groups, and cash benefits for family workers under compulsory coverage for pension insurance.^[26]
• The introduction of voluntary retirement at 63 with no deductions in the level of benefits.^[27]
• The index-linking of war victim’s pensions to wage increases.^[6]
• An increase in spending on research and education by nearly 300% between 1970 and 1974.^[14]
• The raising of the school leaving age to 16.^[28]
• The abolition of fees for higher or further education.^[6]
• A considerable increase in the number of higher education institutions.^[14]
• The introduction of grants for pupils from lower income groups to stay on at school.^[14]
• The introduction of grants for those going into any kind of higher or further education.^[14]
• Increases in educational allowances.^[29]
• Greater spending on science.^[30]
• The introduction of "Vergleichmieten" ('comparable rents'), a loose form of rent regulation.^[31]
• A significant rise in the income limit for social housing (1971).^[32]
• Increased levels of protection and support for low-income tenants and householders,^[6] which led to a drop in the number of eviction notices. By 1974, three times as much was paid out in rent subsidies as in 1969, and nearly one and a half million households received rental assistance.^[33]
• Increases in public housing subsidies,^[34] as characterised by a 36% increase in the social housing budget in 1970^[35] and by the introduction of a programme for the construction of 200,000 public housing units (1971).^[36]
• The establishment of a federal environmental programme (1971).^[37]
• Reforms to the armed forces, as characterised by a reduction in basic military training from eighteen to fifteen months and a reorganisation of education and training, as well as personnel and procurement procedures.^[38]
• The establishment of a women’s policy machinery at the national level (1972).^[39]
• The establishment of a Federal Environment Agency (1974) to conduct research into environmental issues and prevent pollution.^[40]
• The introduction of redundancy allowances in cases of bankruptcies (1974).^[41]
• Improvements in income and work conditions for home workers.^[42]
• The introduction of new provisions for the rehabilitation of severely disabled people ("Schwerbehinderte") and accident victims.^[43]
• The introduction of guaranteed minimum pension benefits for all West Germans.^[11]
• The introduction of fixed minimum rates for women in receipt of very low pensions, and equal treatment for war widows.^[44]
• An amendment to the Labour Management Act (1971) which granted workers co-determination on the shop floor.^[45]
• The Factory Constitution Law (1971), which strengthened the rights of individual employees “to be informed and to be heard on matters concerning their place of work.” The Works’ Council was provided with greater authority while trade unions were given the right of entry into the factory “provided they informed the employer of their intention to do so”.^[7]
• The passage of a law to encourage wider share ownership by workers and other rank-and-file employees.^[14]
• An increase in federal aid to sports’ organisations.^[14]
• Efforts to improve the railways and motorways.^[14]
• A new Factory Management Law (1972) which extended co-determination at the factory level.^[6]
• The passing of a law in 1974 to allow for worker representation on the boards of large firms (although this change was not enacted until 1976, after alterations were made).^[46]
• The extension of accident insurance to non-working adults.^[11]
• The introduction of greater legal rights for women, as exemplified by the standardisation of pensions, divorce laws, regulations governing use of surnames, and the introduction of measures to bring more women into politics.^[47]
• The Town Planning Act (1971), which encouraged the preservation of historical heritage and helped open up the way to the future of many German cities.^[14]
• An addition to the Basic Law which gave the Federal Government some responsibility for educational planning.^[14]
• A big increase in spending on education, with educational expenses per head of the population multiplied by five.^[14]
• The passing of the Severely Disabled Persons Act (1974), which obliged all employers with more than fifteen employees to ensure that 6% of their workforce was persons officially recognised as being severely disabled. Employers who failed to do so were assessed 100 DM per month for every job falling before the required quota. These compensatory payments were used to subsidise the adaptation of workplaces to the requirements of those who were severely disabled.^[48]
• Amendments to the Federal Social Assistance Act (1974). “Help for the vulnerable” was renamed “help for overcoming particular social difficulties,” and the numbers of people eligible for assistance was greatly extended to include all those “whose own capabilities cannot meet the increasing demands of modern industrial society.” The intention of these amendments was to include especially such groups as discharged prisoners, drug and narcotic addicts, alcoholics, and the homeless.^[49] As a result of these changes, people who formerly had to be supported by their relatives were now entitled to social assistance.^[10]
• The passing of a Foreign Tax Act, which limited the possibility of tax evasion.^[50]
• The Urban Renewal Act (1971), which helped the states to restore their inner cities and to develop new neighbourhoods.^[51]
• The lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18.^[52]
• Improvements in pension provision for women and the self-employed.^[53]
• The introduction of a new minimum pension for workers with at least twenty-five years’ insurance.^[54]
• The Second Sickness Insurance Modification Law (1972), which linked the indexation of the income-limit for compulsory employee coverage to the development of the pension insurance contribution ceiling (75% of the ceiling), obliged employers to pay half of the contributions in the case of voluntary membership, extended the criteria for voluntary membership of employees, and introduced preventive medical check-ups for certain groups.^[55]
• The Pension Reform Law (1972), which guaranteed all retirees a minimum pension regardless of their contributions^[56] and institutionalized the norm that the standard pension (of average earners with forty years of contributions) should not fall below 50% of current gross earnings.^[57] The 1972 pension reforms improved eligibility conditions and benefits for nearly every subgroup of the West German population.^[58] The income replacement rate for employees who made full contributions was raised to 70% of average earnings. The reform also replaced 65 as the mandatory retirement age with a “retirement window” ranging between 63 and 65 for employees who had worked for at least thirty-five years. Employees who qualified as disabled and had worked for at least thirty-five years were extended a more generous retirement window, which ranged between the ages of 60 and 62. Women who had worked for at least fifteen years (ten of which had to be after the age of age 40), and the long-term unemployed were also granted the same retirement window as the disabled. In addition, there were no benefit reductions for employees who had decided to retire earlier than the age of 65.^[59] The legislation also changed the way in which pensions were calculated for low-income earners who had been covered for twenty-five or more years. If the pension benefit fell below a specified level, then such workers were allowed to substitute a wage figure of 75% of the average wage during this period, thus creating something like a minimum wage benefit.^[60]
• The introduction of a pension reform package, which incorporated an additional year of insurance for mothers.^[9]
• The liberalisation of the penal code.^[9]
• An increase in tax-free allowances for children, which enabled 1,000,000 families to claim an allowance for the second child, compared to 300,000 families previously.^[61]
• The exemption of pensioners from paying a 2% health insurance contribution.^[62]
• The Hospital Financing Law (1972), which secured the supply of hospitals and reduced the cost of hospital care, “defined the financing of hospital investment as a public responsibility, single states to issue plans for hospital development, and the federal government to bear the cost of hospital investment covered in the plans, rates for hospital care thus based on running costs alone, hospitals to ensure that public subsidies together with insurance fund payments for patients cover total costs”.^[63]
• A new fund of 100 million marks for disabled children.^[64]
• The granting of equal rights to illegitimate children (1970).^[65]
• A law for the creation of property for workers, under which a married worker would normally keep up to 95% of his pay, and graded tax remission for married wage-earners applied up to a wage of 48,000 marks, which indicated the economic prosperity of West Germany at that time.^[66]
• The Benefit Improvement Law (1973), which made entitlement to hospital care legally binding (entitlements already enjoyed in practice), abolished time limits for hospital care, introduced entitlement to household assistance under specific conditions, and also introduced entitlement to leave of absence from work and cash benefits in the event of a child’s illness.^[67]
• Increased allowances for retraining and advanced training and for refugees from East Germany.^[68]
• The Seventh Modification Law (1973), which linked the indexation of farmers’ pensions to the indexation of the general pension insurance scheme.^[69]
• An increase in federal grants for sport.^[70]
• The Third Modification Law (1974), which extended individual entitlements to social assistance by means of higher-income limits compatible with receipt of benefits and lowered age limits for certain special benefits. Rehabilitation measures were also extended, child supplements were expressed as percentages of standard amounts and were thus indexed to their changes, and grandparents of recipients were exempted from potential liability to reimburse expenditure of social assistance carrier.^[71]
• An amendment to a federal civil service reform bill (1971) which enabled fathers to apply for part-time civil service work.^[72]
• The allocation to local communities of matching grants covering 90% of infrastructure development. This led to a dramatic increase in the number of public swimming pools and other facilities of consumptive infrastructure throughout West Germany.^[73]
• A modernization of the federal crime-fighting apparatus.^[74]
• The Third Social Welfare Amendment Act (1974), which brought considerable improvements for the handicapped, those in need of care, and older persons.^[75]
• The introduction of a matching fund program for 15 million employees, which stimulated them to accumulate capital.^[76]
• A much needed school and college construction program.^[14]
• The Industrial Relations Law (1972) and the Personnel Representation Act (1974), which not only broadened the rights of employees in matters which immediately affected their places of work, but also improved the possibilities for codetermination on operations committees, together with access of trade unions to companies.^[56] In 1972, the rights of works councils to information from management were not only strengthened, but works councils were also provided with full codetermination rights on issues such as working time arrangements in the plant, the setting of piece rates, plant wage systems, the establishment of vacation times, work breaks, overtime, and short-time work.^[77]
• The introduction of substantial federal benefits for farmers.^[78]
• The passage of a progressive anticartel law.^[14]
• The introduction of legislation which ensured continued payment of wages for workers disabled by illness (1970).^[56]
• A modernization of the armed forces establishment.^[79]
• The introduction of postgraduate support for highly qualified graduates, providing them with the opportunity to earn their doctorates or undertake research studies.^[80]
• The introduction of a contributory medical service for 23 million panel patients.^[81]
• The Third Law for the Liberalization of the Penal Code (1970), which liberalized “the right to political demonstration”.^[82]
• The introduction of free hospital care for 9 million recipients of social relief.^[83]
• The lowering of the age of eligibility for political office to twenty-one.^[84]
• Increases in the pensions of 2.5 million war victims.^[85]
• The lowering of the office age of majority to eighteen (March 1974).^[86]
• An increase in the number of teachers.^[87]
• The passage of a law which guaranteed “amnesty in minor offences connected with demonstrations.”^[88]
• The attainment of a lower rate of inflation than in other industrialised countries at that time.^[89]
• A rise in the standard of living, helped by the floating and revaluation of the mark.^[14] This was characterised by the real incomes of employees increasing more sharply than incomes from entrepreneurial work, with the proportion of employees’ incomes in the overall national income rising from 65% to 70% between 1969 and 1973, while the proportion of income from entrepreneurial work and property fell over that same period from just under 35% to 30.%^[90]