Full transcript
0:02DW - History Stories
0:12Will Brandt's Genuflection
0:19The gesture has gone down in history. But at the time it divided public opinion.
0:27The genuflection at the monument to the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (7. December 1970)
0:36I knelt in front of the monument to those who died in the Warsaw Ghetto.
0:42Despite derisive comments in the Federal Republic,
0:46I was not ashamed of this act.
0:49The genuflection in Warsaw, wich was noted all over the world,
0:53was not planned. Under the weight of recent history,
0:58I did what people do when words fail.
1:01In this way I paid tribute to the millions murdered.
1:05I also remembered that despite Auschwitz,
1:09fanaticism and suppression of human rights have not found an end.
1:15The man who, early on, had uncompromisingly committed himself to resisting the Nazi regime
1:19asks for forgiveness for his country’s crimes It is a clear symbol of reconciliation between East and West.
1:23It’s good that Brandt is in Poland today
1:28and the Poles like me, are - how to say it -
1:34are very happy about that.
1:39We hope that now peace will become greater and more beautiful in the world.
1:44Were very happy about the treaty, An important point was that it codifies the inviolability of the existing borders between the two countries.because I think it's good for Poland and Germany.
1:54The treaty between West Germany and Poland is a step towards normalizing relations. (7. December 1970)
2:02An important point was that it codifies the inviolability of the existing borders.
2:08On the day the treaty was signed in Warsaw,
2:11Günter Grass spoke of the need for a politics of reconciliation:
2:14I hope that people in Germany realize, as people in Poland have,
2:20that this is not about relinquishing anything, rather that Brandt has taken
2:25a necessary step and made a start. You see, I am directly affected.
2:30I’m from Gdansk, I know what this means. Loss of one’s homeland.
2:35I made that renouncement for myself right after the war ended,
2:40but now I am grateful that a treaty has finally been signed
2:45and that, for the younger generation – I'm thinking of my children –
2:51the burdens of wartime have come to an end.
2:55“The chain of tragedy in the history of both nations has been broken,"
2:59wrote the largest Warsaw newspaper. It s editor-in-chief added:
3:05As the editor-in-chief of “Życie Warszawy” for 20 years
3:08and as a former prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp,
3:13I am satisfied with the treaty.
3:17One of the most influential architects of this new “Ostpolitik” is Brandt’s trusted advisor Egon Bahr.
3:26It was absolutely clear that without the renunciation of violence
3:30aimed at altering existing borders, regardless of who drew them or when,
3:36or where they lie, there can be no peace or stability in Europe.
3:41And that is still true today. (Egon Bahr 1922-2015, Will Brandt´s long time associate.)
3:45For Willy Brandt, the key to greater peace and stability lies in a policy of détente.
3:51"Change through rapprochement" is the political guiding principle
3:53that has echoed time and again since 1963:
3:57The ability to positively affect an changeable world,
4:00which is, in the East, also a changing world.
4:07So treaties are signed with socialist countries, including the Soviet Union.
4:14When Willy Brandt arrived in Moscow in August 1970, the negotiating delegations
4:20had been working on a draft treaty for half a year.
4:25Initially under the leadership of Secretary of State Egon Bahr,
4:29then between Foreign Ministers Scheel and Gromyko, formulations were found
4:32for the mutual renunciation of force
4:36and the threat of force and the inviolability of borders in Europe.
4:40Gromyko and Prime Minister Kossygin were unable to secure
4:45recognition of East Germany under international law.
4:47The German side insisted on the right of self-determination for the German people.
4:52In an official letter, Foreign Minister Scheel informed the Soviet government
4:57that the Federal Republic did not feel hindered by the Moscow Treaty
5:01from pursuing the goal of German unity.
5:04Some analysts spoke of a liberating change in the global position
5:10of the Federal Republic of Germany, others of a success for Soviet diplomacy.
5:1812. August 1970
5:20In a solemn ceremony in the Kremlin's St. Catherine Hall on August 12, 1970,
5:26Chancellor Brandt and Prime Minister Kossygin
5:30put their signatures to the treaty.
5:34The treaty with the East drew fierce criticism
5:38from the opposition in the Bundestag, with Franz Josef Strauss at the forefront.
5:41My political friends and I are convinced that these treaties, as they stand,
5:48go beyond the military renunciation of force and the willingness to cooperate,
5:54signifying a breaking point in German postwar history
5:58on a road at the end of which can only be disaster.
6:03Chancellor Brandt, who had lost his majority in the Bundestag after some
6:07lawmakers defected to the opposition, was nevertheless able
6:10to push the Eastern treaties through the Bundestag and Bundesrat.
6:13Willy Brandt also seeks dialogue with East Germany.
6:19Twenty years after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR,
6:24we must prevent the German nation from drifting further apart
6:30and live alongside each other by means of a regulated coexistence.
6:35We are not at the end of our democracy; we are only at the beginning.
6:44We want to be and become a nation of good neighbors, internally and externally.
6:53On March 19, 1970, a train crossed the border to Erfurt.
6:59Supported by consent from the Western Allies, Willy Brandt opened
7:03a dialogue with East Germany after 25 years of division.
7:07I wish you a very pleasant stay Thank you very much for the welcome,
7:11and for ensuring good weather. That shouldn’t be a problem.
7:14Thank you very much.
7:18But the warm welcome Willy Brandt received from the citizens of Erfurt
7:22could not hide the hard political differences.
7:36I assume not that much will come out of the meeting, but it's good that the two statesmen are meeting.
7:44I think it's useful for people to see what the opinions of the two parties are,
7:50but I don't foresee any successes and I don’t have any expectations for it.
7:55I don't think much will come out of it,
7:57but I do think interpersonal relations should be made easier.
8:01In 1972, a basic treaty is signed between West and East Germany.
8:05Among other things, it eases travel between the two countries
8:13He has been marked by pushing through a policy many have criticized.
8:18But he is aware of that when he says,
8:20“We don’t come across peace; we have to create it.”
8:24The Oslo prize has encouraged him.
8:31I ask you, Chancellor Willy Brandt, to accept the diploma
8:37and the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1971. (10 December 1971)
9:01I thank you sincerely and will do everything I can
9:07to come close to what many expect from me in my further work.
9:19We are here in the country of Fridtjof Nansen,
9:25and his admonition that we “hurry to act before it is too late to repent”.
9:44Three years later, Brandt resigns as chancellor.
9:49His personal aide and advisor, Günter Guillaume, is exposed as an East German spy.
10:00It is not until 15 years later that Willy Brandt's political visions become reality.
10:06With the fall of the Berlin Wall, a lifelong dream comes true for Brandt.
10:121989
10:13Let me introduce the honorary citizen
10:16of Berlin and its former governing mayor Willy Brandt.
10:25It has always been my conviction that the cement division,
10:31and the division through barbed wire and death strips,
10:38were in opposition to the current of history.
10:44And this past summer, without knowing exactly what would happen this autumn,
10:53I wrote – you can read it if you want – that Berlin will live, and the Wall will fall.
11:07Willy Brandt dies on October 8, 1992.
11:13Mourning Willy Brandt. In Berlin's Reichstag, politicians from many parts of
11:18the world paid their last respects to the Social Democrat
11:21and former German Chancellor. Bundespräsident von Weizsäcker: The life of a great man
11:26has come to an end.
11:28He has shaped an era. He reconciled Germans with themselves.
11:36He changed the relationship of Germans to the world
11:39as well as the world to Germany.
11:43Willy Brandt was granted the opportunity to witness his vision of a united Germany.
11:47In the city that shaped him, in Berlin, he finds his final resting place.
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