Willy Brandt

Brandt, Willy (Karl Herbert Frahm; (1913–92), Social Democratic chancellor of West Germany 1969–74, whose Ostpolitik (Eastern policy) marked a major step towards East-West detente in Europe. He opposed Hitler, fleeing to Norway (1933) and returning after World War II to become mayor of West Berlin (1957–66). As chancellor, he secured friendship treaties with Poland and the USSR (1970), with East Germany (1972), and with Czechoslovakia (1974). Brandt's initiative won him the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize. Forced to resign in 1974 over a spy scandal in his own administration, he returned to political life in 1975.

See also: Germany.