Born Herbert Ernst Frahm on December 16, 1913, in Luebeck, Germany, the later Willy Brandt was the son of Martha Frahm, a young, single shopgirl. He later found out that his father was John Moeller of Hamburg, but he never met the man. Brandt was raised by his mother and maternal grandfather, both passionate Social Democrats. As a teen-ager Brandt first joined the Socialist Party of Germany (SPD) in 1930, but one year later switched to a more radical spin-off, the SAP. In 1933 he assumed the name Willy Brandt while going underground to avoid arrest by Hitler's Gestapo. The same year, he fled Germany for Norway, where he went to work as a radical journalist. In 1938, the Nazis stripped him of his German citizenship.

He returned to Germany after the war and quickly became active in the Berlin SPD. In 1948, his German citizenship was restored, and the following year he was elected a member of West Germany's first parliament. A fierce anti-communist and pragmatic socialist, Brandt quickly made a name for himself in the SPD, which in 1957 chose him as its candidate for mayor of West Berlin. In this position, Brandt played a prominent role during the Berlin crisis of 1958-1962, particularly in August 1961 when the East German regime erected the Berlin Wall. At first imploring the Western allies to take strong action, Brandt quickly became a convert to a more pragmatic approach to the new situation, for example by working out with the East German government visitor arrangements for families separated by the Wall. It was the beginning of the later-to-be-famous "Ostpolitik," which sought to overcome the effects of the division of Germany and Europe on the basis of the recognition of its reality.

Brandt was the SPD candidate for chancellor in 1961 and 1965. In 1966 he became West Germany's foreign minister in a coalition government with the Christian Democrats. Three years later he finally won the chancellorship. His tenure became most renowned for the implementation of Ostpolitik and West Germany's further reconciliation with the outside world. Brandt's government concluded a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union and also normalized relations with Poland, Czechoslovakia, and, finally, East Germany. What made Ostpolitik possible was the fact that Brandt's government recognized Europe's borders as inviolable, and furthermore that it acknowledged the existence of two states in the German nation. Even though formally Brandt did not give up on the objective of German unification, many Germans at the time seemed to have their doubts. However, in elections in 1972 the SPD led by Brandt gained its largest election victory ever. The year before he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1974 the anti-climax came in the form of a spy scandal in his office, forcing him to resign. Until his death at age 78 on October 8, 1992, near Bonn, three years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Brandt remained active in German politics, the Socialist International, and as an international spokesman for better North-South relations.

Willy Brandt - Stations of his Life

1913	Born on 18 December in Lübeck
1930	Member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
1933-1945	Exile in Norway and Sweden Resistance to the Nazi Regime in Germany
1936	Illegal Sojourn in Berlin
1945-1947	Return to Germany as Correspondent of Scandinavian Newspapers
1947	Press Attaché to the Norwegian Military Mission to the Allied Control Council in Berlin
1948	Special Representative of the SPD's Executive Committee in Berlin
1949-1957,1961	Deputy for Berlin in the German Bundestag
1955-1957	Member of the Berlin City Assembly President of the Berlin City Assembly
1957-1966	Governing Mayor of Berlin
1964-1987	Chairman of the SPD
1966-1969	Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Chancellor
1969-1992	Member of the German Bundestag
1969-1974	Federal Chancellor
1971	Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
1976-1992	President of the Socialist International
1977-1983	Chairman of the North-South Commission
1979-1983	Member of the European Parliament
1987-1992	Honorary Chairman of the SPD
1992	Passed away in Unkel near Bonn on 8 October

 

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