Willy
Brandt was born in Lubeck in 1913. He joined the Social
Democratic Party in 1930 and was active in the campaign
against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi
Party.
In
1933 he fled to Norway and after studying
at Oslo University he worked as a journalist. With the invasion of
the German
Army in
1940 Brandt was forced to move to Sweden.
For the rest of the Second World War Brandt
gave support to the German resistance movement.
Brandt
returned to Germany after the war and in
1949 was elected to the Bundestag. In 1957 Brandt became a mayor of
West Berlin and campaigned in favour of the removal of the Berlin
Wall.
A socialist,
Brandt became chairman of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
(SPD) in 1964. Two years later he joined the coalition government
led by Kurt Kiesinger. Brandt, as Foreign Minister, developed the
policy of Ostpolitik (reconciliation between eastern and western Europe).
In 1969
Brandt became Chancellor of West Germany. He continued with his policy
of Ostpolitik and in 1970 negotiated an agreement with the Soviet
Union accepting the frontiers of Berlin. Later that year he signed
a non-aggression pact with Poland. This was followed by the Basic
Treaty with East Germany. These acts led to him winning the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1971.
Brandt
was forced to resign as Chancellor in April 1974 after it was discovered
that his close political aide, Gunther Guillaume, was an East German
spy.
Brandt
continued to be active in politics and between 1977 and 1983 was chairman
of the Brandt Commission on economic development. Its report, North-South:
A Programme for Survival, argued that the rich north should
help countries in the poor southern hemisphere.
Willy Brandt
died in 1992.
History
of the European Union: Integration Process and European Citizenship
