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Willy Brandt: Life of a Statesman
Willy Brandt was a statesman who witnessed Germany's tumultuous twentieth century first-hand, from the rise of Nazism to the fall of the Berlin Wall. He was also at the forefront of some of Germany's most definitive and controversial decisions, in his role as the first Social Democrat Chancellor of West Germany between 1969 and 1974. In this period he paved the way for the eventual reunification of the country, as well as strengthening European integration in western Europe. In 1971, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for "Ostpolitik," his policy of reconciliation with Germany's neighbours in the Eastern Bloc. During the treaty negotiations in Warsaw, he famously fell to his knees in recognition of the atrocities committed by his countrymen in the Warsaw Ghetto. This definitive new biography illuminates Brandt's personal life and political career, providing new perspectives on one of the leading statesmen of the twentieth century.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published November 19, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 14, 2023
I’m so old now that I was alive while Willy Brandt was the chancellor of Germany, but before reading this book, I only remembered his distinct figure and the fact that he resigned when an east-German spy was discovered in his entourage.
Despite having a consequential apport to shaping post-war Germany’s and, to a certain degree, Europe’s politics, very little is written in English about him, which is a shame, because his life is an odyssey.
An intelligent, charismatic, and good communicator, born in a poor area in 1913 and raised by a single mother, he joined the socialist movement, had to go into exile during the nazi regime, and came back after the war to lead SPD and became firstly Berlin’s mayor and finally Germany’s chancellor.
The book details his travails, his great success in moving SDP to the centre ground, in redefining Germany’s role in the new Western Europe, and his “Ostpolitik” diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with Eastern Europe and USSR in the hope of a long term ‘thaw’ in the Cold War and eventual reunification of Germany.
It also points out some of his failures – mainly his belief that a cooperative, non-confrontational approach and his very good personal relationship with Brezhnev and other east-European leaders, would be enough to convince them to be more democratic and renounce their aim of spreading communism all over the world.
Despite giving a lot of data and detailing the complicated national and international context of afterwar Germany and Europe that Brand had to deal with, it feels a bit dry, like an extended Wikipedia article. It fails to bring up Brand’s personality and it raises a lot of questions that remain unanswered.
Did he realise the extent of Stasi and KGB penetration of Germany’s politics and even of his own circle?
Married three times, the last one when he was seventy years old, what made him as reckless in love affairs (one of them with a Stasi agent) as Kennedy or Clinton?
The author mentions his bouts of depression, sudden melancholy, fatigue, and despondency.
Was this caused by stress and his complicated love life or the high use of alcohol?
Kissinger told Nixon once: ‘Brandt is dumb. And lazy […] and he drinks.’ On what did he base this characterisation?
He lasted at the top of politics more time than any of his contemporaries and it appears that towards the end of his political life, he lost almost all of his allies, became irrelevant at the national level and found more understanding and adulation abroad, on the European left political circuit than in Germany.
Was it so?
Is the author trying to paint only the positives and avoid some contentious aspects?
Nevertheless, he remains a giant of after war German politics and other books might delve deeper into his fascinating life story.
Despite having a consequential apport to shaping post-war Germany’s and, to a certain degree, Europe’s politics, very little is written in English about him, which is a shame, because his life is an odyssey.
An intelligent, charismatic, and good communicator, born in a poor area in 1913 and raised by a single mother, he joined the socialist movement, had to go into exile during the nazi regime, and came back after the war to lead SPD and became firstly Berlin’s mayor and finally Germany’s chancellor.
The book details his travails, his great success in moving SDP to the centre ground, in redefining Germany’s role in the new Western Europe, and his “Ostpolitik” diplomatic efforts to ease tensions with Eastern Europe and USSR in the hope of a long term ‘thaw’ in the Cold War and eventual reunification of Germany.
It also points out some of his failures – mainly his belief that a cooperative, non-confrontational approach and his very good personal relationship with Brezhnev and other east-European leaders, would be enough to convince them to be more democratic and renounce their aim of spreading communism all over the world.
Despite giving a lot of data and detailing the complicated national and international context of afterwar Germany and Europe that Brand had to deal with, it feels a bit dry, like an extended Wikipedia article. It fails to bring up Brand’s personality and it raises a lot of questions that remain unanswered.
Did he realise the extent of Stasi and KGB penetration of Germany’s politics and even of his own circle?
Married three times, the last one when he was seventy years old, what made him as reckless in love affairs (one of them with a Stasi agent) as Kennedy or Clinton?
The author mentions his bouts of depression, sudden melancholy, fatigue, and despondency.
Was this caused by stress and his complicated love life or the high use of alcohol?
Kissinger told Nixon once: ‘Brandt is dumb. And lazy […] and he drinks.’ On what did he base this characterisation?
He lasted at the top of politics more time than any of his contemporaries and it appears that towards the end of his political life, he lost almost all of his allies, became irrelevant at the national level and found more understanding and adulation abroad, on the European left political circuit than in Germany.
Was it so?
Is the author trying to paint only the positives and avoid some contentious aspects?
Nevertheless, he remains a giant of after war German politics and other books might delve deeper into his fascinating life story.
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November 10, 2025Whistle stop tour of Brandt's political life. My favourite anecdote in there was when he tried to persuade Axel Springer (one of the less believable of Brandt's allies, among some other odd ones) to support a scheme in 1963 to allow West Berliners to visit their relatives in the East over Christmas, by suggesting that it would lead to marriages, and thereby forming some kind of cultural wedge against the division of the city.
It was also interesting that Brandt's protégé in the later years was Oskar Lafontaine, united at the time in their opposition to stationing US Pershing II missiles in the FRG. He and Brandt fell out, and after a stint as Kanzlerkandidat and Finanzminister Lafontaine went on to join the left-wing WASG, and to oversee its merger with the PDS to form Die Linke. But Lafontaine didn't take all of the Ostpolitiker with him - some remain in the SPD to this day and claim to bear Brandt's torch of cooperation with the East / Russia.
The book unfortunately glosses over Brandt's downfall, though I approve in general of the book's focus on his formative earlier years in exile.
It's hard not to be left with the impression that Brandt was that rare kind of politician who aimed for an ideal of unity in an era of irreconcilable contradiction. Whatever you might think of the sense in that, and in the SPD's shift from mass social-democratic workers' party to a so-called Volkspartei (under Brandt's stewardship at the Bad Godesberg conference in 59) his thought and strategies were maverick, but not opportunistic; ambitious but, ultimately, pragmatic.
It was also interesting that Brandt's protégé in the later years was Oskar Lafontaine, united at the time in their opposition to stationing US Pershing II missiles in the FRG. He and Brandt fell out, and after a stint as Kanzlerkandidat and Finanzminister Lafontaine went on to join the left-wing WASG, and to oversee its merger with the PDS to form Die Linke. But Lafontaine didn't take all of the Ostpolitiker with him - some remain in the SPD to this day and claim to bear Brandt's torch of cooperation with the East / Russia.
The book unfortunately glosses over Brandt's downfall, though I approve in general of the book's focus on his formative earlier years in exile.
It's hard not to be left with the impression that Brandt was that rare kind of politician who aimed for an ideal of unity in an era of irreconcilable contradiction. Whatever you might think of the sense in that, and in the SPD's shift from mass social-democratic workers' party to a so-called Volkspartei (under Brandt's stewardship at the Bad Godesberg conference in 59) his thought and strategies were maverick, but not opportunistic; ambitious but, ultimately, pragmatic.
April 2, 2024
The well-written, easy-to-read book that allows us to follow the life of Willy Brandt, his political ideas and the way he put them into practice. At the same time, it reveals his personal and private side to us, which helps us to understand him better, of the one who was the father of German reunification.
Hélène Miard-Delacroix writes in a simple way, which allows a non-university audience to follow and understand her book, without calling into question the rigor and sources.
Hélène Miard-Delacroix writes in a simple way, which allows a non-university audience to follow and understand her book, without calling into question the rigor and sources.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews