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| Order: | 30th Chancellor of Germany (4th of the Federal Republic) |
|---|---|
| Term of Office: | October 21, 1969– May 6, 1974 |
| Predecessor: | Kurt Georg Kiesinger |
| Successor: | Helmut Schmidt |
| Date of Birth: | December 18, 1913 |
| Date of Death: | October 8, 1992 |
| Political Party: | SPD |
Willy Brandt ( December 18, 1913– October 8, 1992) was Chancellor of Germany from 1969 to 1974. The social democrat received the Nobel Peace Prize in 19711971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). Events January January 1 British divorce Reform Act comes into force January 2 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland. See Ibrox disaster. Janua for his work in improving relations with the German Democratic Republic, PolandThe Republic of Poland a country in Central Europe, lies between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) t and the Soviet Union, but is controversial in Germany and had to resign after an espionage scandal.
Brandt was born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm in Lübeck to a mother who worked as a cashier for a department store. He became an apprentice at the shipbroker and ship's agent F.H. Bertling. He joined the "Socialist Youth" in 1929 and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1930. He left the SPD to join the more left wing Socialist Workers Party (SAP) which was allied to the POUM in Spain and the ILP in Britain. In 1933, using his connections with the port and its ships from the time he had been apprentice, he left Germany for Norway on a ship to escape Nazi persecution. It was at this time that he adopted the pseudonym Willy Brandt to avoid detection by Nazi agents. He visited Germany from September to December 1936, disguised as a Norwegian student named Gunnar Gaasland. In 1937 he worked in Spain as a journalist. In 1938 the German government revoked his citizenship, so he applied for Norwegian citizenship. In 1940 he was arrested in Norway by occupying German forces, but he was not identified because he wore a Norwegian uniform; on his release he escaped to neutral Sweden. In August 1940 he became a Norwegian citizen, receiving his passport from the Norwegian embassy in Stockholm, where he lived until the end of the war.