by Cora Buhlert

A New Year

As you read this, 1971 is barely two days old and it started with ice, snow and temperatures well below freezing in both East and West Germany, because the weather does not care about borders and is utterly unimpressed by the iron curtain.

A New Hope

In West Germany, 1970 was a year of change and optimism. For even though Willy Brandt has been Chancellor of West Germany for not quite fourteen months by now, he has already done more to improve West Germany's relationship with our neighbours on the other side of the iron curtain than his predecessors managed during their entire time in office.

The three predecessors of Willy Brandt – Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Ehrhardt and Kurt Georg Kiesinger – all pursued a confrontational policy towards East Germany, the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern Bloc. However, this confrontational policy neither brought us one step closer to a (re)unified Germany nor did it do anything to improve the lives of the people in East Germany, the situation of the people of West Berlin and the ability of West Germans to visit friends and loved ones in East Germany.

After twenty years of hostility, confrontation and cold war, it was time for a new approach. This approach is called "change via rapprochement" and was developed by Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr, state secretary at the chancellery. The idea behind this new policy is that actually talking to East European heads of state, trying to find common ground and maybe even engaging in trade with the countries of the Eastern Bloc will do more to bring about peaceful relationships, improve the lives particularly of the people in East Germany and maybe even lead to gradual political change in the Eastern Bloc than constant confrontation.

Accepting Political Realities

Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr wasted no time putting this new policy into action. In March, only five months after he became Chancellor, Willy Brandt met with Willi Stoph, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of East Germany, in the city of Erfurt in East Germany (East Berlin would have been too controversial a meeting place) as the first West German Chancellor ever to visit East Germany and meet with East German politicians as equals, since West Germany officially does not recognise East Germany as an independent and sovereign state. Two months later, Willi Stoph visited West Germany in return and met with Brandt in the city of Kassel. They are in the process negotiating an agreement that will make it easier for West Germans to visit East Germany and travel through East Germany to West Berlin.

However, Brandt and Bahr did not stop there. In August, Willy Brandt visited Moscow and signed a contract, in which West Germany and the Soviet Union affirm their commitment to upholding international peace and finding peaceful solutions to political issues particularly in Europe. More importantly, West Germany also officially recognised its postwar borders, i.e. the country acknowledges not only that East Germany is a separate and sovereign state (with the caveat that West Germany will continue to pursue a voluntary and self-determined unification with East Germany somewhere down the line), but also that the formerly German regions east of the rivers Oder and Neiße are now part of Poland and – in the case of East Prussia – the Soviet Union.

This is a very big deal, because not only has the reunification with East Germany been an official political aim of West Germany since its founding in 1949, but many people who fled Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia or were forcibly expelled are also unwilling to accept that their former homes are now inhabited by someone else and are part of a different country. What is more, the people who fled or were expelled from Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia have also formed politically influential organisations. Particularly, the conservative Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union tend to cater to the Pomeranian, Silesian and East Prussian associations and their unwillingness to accept political facts.

In short, Willy Brandt is not only upending previous West German policy, he is also alienating some very influential organisations. But even though I have some sympathy for the people from Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia who lost their homes, it is time for them to accept the current political reality. Their homelands are gone and other people live there now. What is more, the former inhabitants were well, some say overly well compensated for their loss from a fund paid by West German real estate owners. It is time to let go. For while we may eventually see a (re)unification of West and East Germany, though not in the foreseeable future, Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia will never be part of Germany again.

A Fateful Journey

Willy Brandt's next destination was Poland, where he met with Polish prime minister Józef Cyrankiewicz in Warsaw on December 7. Once again, it was the first time a West German chancellor visited Poland and once again, an agreement was signed, which initiates diplomatic relations between West Germany and Poland (since we currently have none). What is more, West Germany recognises the postwar borders and particularly the so-called Oder-Neiße-line, i.e. the current border between Poland and East Germany, once again in that contract. In many ways, this is a symbolic act, since the Oder-Neiße-line is not our, but East Germany's border with Poland and they recognised that border in 1951, but it was still an important step towards improving West Germany's relationship with Poland or rather ensuring that we have a relationship at all as well as an overdue acknowledgement of political facts that cannot be changed.

The Warsaw Agreement was much criticised by the Pomeranian, Silesian and East Prussian associations and the conservative Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union, who accused Willy Brandt of surrendering German interests. Brandt countered his critics by pointing out that he did not surrender or give away anything that the Nazis hadn't already gambled away twenty-five years ago.

Willy Brandt Kneels

State visits also usually involve visiting monuments and places of remembrance to lay down a wreath and Willy Brandt's visit to Warsaw was no different. And so Willy Brandt visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw and laid down a wreath with the usual pomp and ceremony.

Afterwards, at his own insistence, Willy Brandt also visited the Monument to the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto to lay down another wreath. It was a far more low key ceremony than the wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There were only two honour guards, a few dozen spectators and of course a gaggle of reporters.

Initially, the wreath laying proceeded according to the usual protocol for such events. Two attendants carried the large wreath to the monument, followed by Willy Brandt and West German foreign secretary Walter Scheel. The wreath was laid down and Willy Brandt stepped forward to rearrange the ribbon in the German colours black, red and gold. Then Willy Brandt took a step back, as if to admire his handiwork. So far, so normal. But then something most remarkable happened.

For suddenly, Willy Brandt dropped to his knees on the rain-slicked steps that lead up to the monument. He knelt silently for maybe half a minute, while reporters frantically jostled each other and snapped photos, then he got up again and walked away.

Reactions to Willy Brandt's Gesture

Apparently, no one in Brandt's entourage knew what he was planning and perhaps not even Brandt himself knew that he would drop to his knees until he did. At any rate, Brandt insisted the following night that the decision to drop to his knees was born out of the moment. And it certainly looked that way.

Among others, Brandt's entourage included the celebrated West German writers Günther Grass and Siegfried Lenz, both born in what is now Poland and both inundated with angry letters accusing them of betraying their former homeland by joining the West German delegation. Grass and Lenz happened to miss their ride to the wreath laying ceremony at the Warsaw Ghetto monument and thus missed Brandt's gesture and allegedly were stunned and initially disbelieving when told about it.

Meanwhile, the reactions in West Germany and abroad to Brandt's gesture were varied. According to recent polls, the West German population is about evenly split with regard to whether Willy Brandt's gesture was justified or not with younger West Germans being overwhelmingly in favour and older West Germans more likely to be opposed.

The West German news magazine Der Spiegel published a photo of Brandt kneeling on the rain-slicked steps in front of the Warsaw Ghetto monument on the cover of its latest issue, together with the question "Was Brandt allowed to kneel?"

Spiegel journalist Hermann Schreiber answers this question with a resounding "yes" and points out that Willy Brandt wasn't kneeling for himself, because he is about as blameless for the Third Reich and the Holocaust as it is possible for a German person to be, having fled Germany in 1933, shortly after Hitler took office, and spending the Third Reich in exile in Norway and Sweden, actively working against the Nazis. No, Brandt dropped to his knees not out of any personal responsibility, but as a representative of West Germany.

On the other hand, Peter Boenisch, editor-in-chief of the tabloid Bild, declared that in overwhelmingly Catholic Poland, the people know that one only kneels before God—as a Lutheran Protestant with little interest in organised religion, Willy Brandt had no right to kneel.

West German journalist Alfred Wolfmann, who also happens to be Jewish, added in the newspaper Welt that kneeling is not a Jewish custom and also criticised that Brandt's entourage did not include a single Jewish delegate, supposedly out of deference to Antisemitic sentiments in Poland. Other conservative West German journalists viewed Brandt's gesture as kowtowing to Communism.

Responses in western Europe and the US were overwhelmingly positive, though French president Georges Pompidou was allegedly shocked by Brandt's gesture and felt that it was shameless. Meanwhile, the news media in eastern Europe mostly did not report about Brandt's gesture at all and indeed focussed far more on the agreement signed and on Brandt visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

But what about Poland itself? Once again, the Polish press was more interested in Brandt's visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and also published the photos of the kneeling Brandt only in a censored version. However, Polish prime minister Józef Cyrankiewicz, himself a survivor of the Auschwitz and Mauthausen concentration camps, was allegedly very moved by Willy Brandt's gesture and personally said so to Brandt. The people of Poland, at least those who actually saw Brandt kneeling, were also overwhelmingly touched and impressed by this gesture, though some wondered whether Brandt's gesture was only directed at the Jewish victims or also at the many Polish victims of World War II.

Inflation, Strikes and Blood in the Streets

However, the sad truth is that Willy Brandt's visit to Poland and the signing of the so-called Warsaw Agreement was quickly overshadowed by other events. For Poland is facing an economic crisis, which led to massive price increases for groceries and other consumer products just before Christmas.

As a result, workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk began striking and the strikes and protests quickly spread to other cities along the Baltic Sea. Soon, the streets were filled with furious people. Protesters clashed with police forces. By the third day after the hefty price increases had been announced, the headquarters of the Polish Communist Party in Gdansk as well as the central station had been set on fire and six people were dead.

The Polish government handled the crisis badly and initially refused to negotiate with the striking workers at all. On December 16, Polish TV broadcast a speech by politburo member Stanisław Kociołek wherein he acknowledged the grievances of the protesters but also noted that fulfilling their demands was impossible. In short, those prices were not coming down again. Kociolek concluded his speech by imploring the shipyard workers to return to work.

However, when shipyard workers in the cities of Gdansk and Gdynia did try to return to work the next day, they found themselves faced with the tanks and rifles of the Polish military, which had been mobilised overnight. By the end of the day, forty-five people, mostly civilians, were dead.

Whether Kociolek had any knowledge of the fact that the military had been sent to Gdansk and Gdynia is unclear, though the people of Poland have privately begun to refer to him as "Kociolek the Bloody" and "the Butcher of the Baltic Coast". And as the only member of the Polish politburo to publicly respond to the crisis and address the protesters, Kociolek makes for a very convenient scapegoat. Kociolek has since been appointed as Polish ambassador to Belgium to get him out of the firing line.

Though more heads would roll. For on December 20, Wladyslaw Gomulka, head of the Polish Communist Party and the politburo, resigned and was replaced by the secretary of the Polish Communist Party in the province of Katowice, Edward Gierek.

The new year began with unrest and grief in Poland. Let's hope that things will get better, in Poland, West Germany and the rest of the world.

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