Willy Brandt

Pursued the New Ostpolitik and knelt before the Warsaw Ghetto memorial.

Life

Exile

Brandt, born Herbert Frahm, joined the socialist movement as a young man. After the Nazis came to power he went into exile in Norway and Sweden and took part in the resistance.

Mayor of West Berlin

After the war he returned to Germany and served as Mayor of West Berlin from 1957 to 1966, living through the building of the Berlin Wall. In 1969 he became West Germany's first Social Democratic Chancellor and pursued the New Ostpolitik, improving relations with the Soviet Union, Poland and East Germany and recognizing the postwar borders. In 1970 he knelt before the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and in 1971 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Warsaw Genuflection

In 1974, when one of his aides was exposed as an East German spy, he took responsibility and resigned. In his later years he chaired the "North-South Commission," focusing on development issues. He died in 1992.

Legacy

Brandt's New Ostpolitik eased tensions in Cold War Europe and created the conditions for later German reunification.

Did you know? The Warsaw Genuflection was not planned in advance; he later said: "I did what people do when words fail them."

Key dates

• 1933Exile in Norway
• 1957Mayor of West Berlin
• 1969Became Prime Minister
• 1970Warsaw Genuflection
• 1971Wins the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1974Resigns over a spy scandal
• 1992Died