Willy Brandt

Full Name: Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm
Profession: Chancellor of West Germany

Nationality:

Biography: Willy Brandt served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for "paving the way for a meaningful dialogue" between Western and Eastern Europe.

Born as Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm in 1913, Brandt joined the Socialist Youth and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) as a teenager. He fled Nazi Germany in 1933, adopting the name Willy Brandt to conceal his identity, and spent years in Norway and Sweden working as a journalist and campaigning against the Nazis.

After World War II, Brandt returned to Germany and rejoined the SPD. He was elected to the Bundestag in 1949 and served as Governing Mayor of West Berlin from 1957 to 1966 before becoming SPD chairman in 1964. It was later discovered that he had received a large covert payment from the United States government in 1950.

As Chancellor, Brandt implemented Ostpolitik, a policy aimed at improving relations with Eastern Bloc countries. He signed treaties with the Soviet Union and Poland and famously knelt at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial in 1970. Brandt also introduced many domestic reforms in areas such as social welfare, education, and housing.

Brandt resigned in 1974 after the Guillaume affair, in which his aide was revealed to be an East German spy. He remained active in politics, chairing the SPD until 1987 and serving as president of the Socialist International from 1976 to 1992.

Born: December 18, 1913
Birthplace: Lübeck, Germany

Generation: Greatest Generation
Chinese Zodiac: Ox
Star Sign: Sagittarius

Died: October 8, 1992 (aged 78)
Cause of Death: Cancer