Team
Director
Peter Merseburger & Jürgen Brühns
Script
Peter Merseburger & Jürgen Brühns
Director of Photography
Thomas von Kreisler
Editor
Margot Löhlein
Sound
Jens Krange, Robert Sandow
Music
Klaus Doldinger
Creative Producer
Katharina Lambsdorff, Claudia Bissinger
Producer
Regina Ziegler
TV Editor
Hans-Jürgen Börner & Volker Zielke NDR / Hans Robert Eisenhauer ARTE
Info
Broadcaster
arte, ARD
Willy Brandt – A Man of the Century
2003
Willy Brandt is one of the most important German politicians since the Second World War. His achievements are legendary. At the same time, he polarized the political scene more than anybody else. For some he was an idol, admired and loved, while for others he was a "traitor to the Fatherland".
In this documentary Peter Merseburger depicts the German man who struggled against two totalitarian systems: Fascism and Stalinism. The author traces the path taken by Willy Brandt from socialist to social democrat. It is a development which begins during his exile in Norway and Sweden and continues after 1945 in Berlin. Brandt is elected mayor of the city which stands at the very centre of the Cold War. As Chancellor of Germany he then seeks reconciliation with the Eastern Bloc, in order to overcome the division of Germany and of the entire continent of Europe. His policy was to achieve change by coming closer to his opponents.
For a generation of young Germans Willy Brandt became an emblem of hope, a man who wanted more democracy. Willy Brandt was not a cynic who relished power for its own sake; he was a statesman who established moral standards.
He was possessed of incredible charisma - even though he was also a hero with weaknesses, as the author Peter Merseburger shows. This is reflected in the many statements from contemporary witnesses who have been interviewed, political allies such as Egon Bahr, Hans Jochen Vogel, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl... but also foreign politicians including Henry Kissinger, Shimon Peres, Felipe Gonzales… and top East German spy Markus Wolf. He expresses his views on the vote of no confidence in Willy Brandt, and the Guillaume affair.
