A widow's revenge: Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik, neo‐conservatism and the German federal election of 1994

Abstract

In the course of the 1994 election campaign, Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik of the late 1960s and early 1970s became an issue. Brandt's widow Brigitte Seebacher‐Brandt attempted to rewrite the history of Ostpolitik and Brandt's role in German politics from a neo‐conservative point of view. She suggested that Herbert Wehner, the SPD ‘s former parliamentary leader, had been instrumental in forcing her husband's resignation in 1974, and, above all, may have been a spy. Seebacher‐Brandt alleged that Wehner actively collaborated with the East in shaping Ostpolitik. If this was so, Ostpolitik may have delayed German unification instead of contributing to it. Brandt's widow attempted to take revenge on the generation of 1968; the generation now largely in charge of the SPD. She accused them of still believing in their leftish anti‐national ideas and lacking enthusiasm for German unification. She has also never forgiven the SPD for not integrating her as ‘one of us’ when she married Willy Brandt. Wishing to rescue Brandt's reputation from her demolition of Ostpolitik she has attempted to depict him as a politician who was thinking along patriotic and national lines when he embarked upon Ostpolitik while downplaying his long‐standing left‐wing credentials.

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