WBC Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem
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WBC Willy Brandt Center Jerusalem |
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"Peace is not all, but without peace all is nothing."
Willy Brandt represents like nobody else the German, as well as the international, Social Democracy. Born in 1913 in Lübeck, he had to escape from Nazi Germany at the age of 19 and found shelter in Norway. In 1971 he was awarded with the Nobel Price for Peace. For 16 years Willy Brandt was chairman of the Socialists International. He died on October 8th, 1992. In remembrance of him, Jusos, Mishmeret Tse’irah and Shabibet Fateh called their common center "Willy Brandt Center".
December 7th, 1970 in front of the cenotaph of the Jewish
Ghetto in Warsaw: Willy Brandt as representative of the "other"
Germany.
In 1929 he is starting to engage in the "Socialist Labors Youth" in Lübeck, one year later he becomes member of the German Socialist Party (SPD). Already in 1931 he is abandoning the SPD to trespass to the Socialist Labor Party (SAP). The Socialist Labor Party separated from the SPD with the aim of a more radical policy towards the National-Socialistic threat.
In 1933 he goes into exile in Norway. Here he abandons his old name Herbert Frahm and calls himself from that moment on Willy Brandt. In Oslo, he is working as journalist, is active in the Norwegian Labor Party, as well as in their youth organization AUF, and is organizing the exile work of SAP. He travels – disguised as Norwegian student – to Berlin and tries to reorganize the underground work of SAP. As journalist and political observer he travels to Spain during the Civil War.
In 1940, already denaturalized, Willy Brandt has to flee from German troops to Sweden, where he gets the Norwegian citizenship. After World War II ended, he observes in his function as journalist the War Crime Processes in Nuernberg. Willy Brandt becomes press officer for the Norwegian military mission to Berlin. In 1948, at age 34, he receives his German citizenship back.
It is this life story as young man that makes Willy Brandt that fascinating – and his engagement for peace, justice, and democracy. In 1973, he visited as first German chancellor Israel. As chairman of the Socialists International he freed the organization of its "Euro-centrism" and took great efforts in finding solutions for the Middle East conflict. In cooperation with the Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky he presented a Peace Plan. Willy Brandt met Jassir Arafat in 1979 in Austria, where they had a famous and a spectacular exchange of views.
In 1992, the congress of the Socialists International takes part in Berlin. Willy Brandt, already terminally ill, is not able to arrive. Hans-Jochen Vogel is reading his farewell speech instead: "Wherever people are exposed to strong pain and suffering, this situation is concerning all of us. And also do not forget: Who is allowing injustice to happen for a long while, is freeing the road to let the following one happen." Furthermore, "Even after the great changes in 1989 and 1990, the world could not have become just "good". But our period of time bears, as barely any other before, great opportunities – for good and for bad. Nothing comes out of itself. And only few things are there to stay. That is why you have to become aware of your power and on the fact that each period of time is looking for its own answers. One has to be up to date to his time to be able to cause well.
Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung
www.willybrandtcenter.org/en/aboutus/brandt
08.09.2010, 22:09