Brandt, Willy (1913-1992), was elected chancellor of West Germany in 1969. He resigned in 1974, after it was discovered that one of his aides was an East German spy. Brandt denied knowledge of the aide’s spy activities, but he accepted full responsibility for the matter. Before serving as chancellor, Brandt had been vice chancellor and foreign minister from 1966 to 1969. He was mayor of West Berlin from 1957 to 1966.
In 1971, Brandt won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reduce tensions between Communist and non-Communist nations. Under Brandt, West Germany signed nonaggression treaties with the Soviet Union and other Eastern European nations. He worked to normalize relations between East and West Germany and to reduce tensions between East and West Berlin.
As a youth, Brandt joined the Social Democratic Party and openly opposed the Nazis. In 1933, he fled to Norway to escape arrest by them. He worked as a correspondent for Scandinavian newspapers from 1933 to 1945, and was active in anti-Nazi resistance. He returned to Germany after World War II and was elected to the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) in 1949.
Brandt was born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm on Dec. 18, 1913, in Lubeck, Germany. He changed his name when he fled from the Nazis in Germany. He died on Oct. 8, 1992.
