1970: This photo of a German chancellor went down in history. Why? | History Stories
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ธ.ค. 2022
- On Dec 7, 1970, 25 years after the end of WWII, German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt before the memorial to the victims of the 1943 uprising of Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. The image became a symbol for Brandt's concept of détente and the path of reconciliation with the Soviet Union, Poland and the GDR.
In the 1970s, the Iron Curtain drew a line through Europe, dividing people, countries and families. In the midst of the Cold War, Willy Brandt responded to the foreign policy debate with the concept of détente.
The Social Democrat declared that achieving a common understanding with the states in the East, first and foremost the Soviet Union, to be a core objective of West Germany's foreign policy. One of the most significant gestures embodying the essence of his policy was the genuflection in Warsaw. In this spontaneous act, Brandt asked for forgiveness on behalf of the Germans for the crimes of the Nazi regime. This gesture garnered him respect, especially from abroad, and a year later he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
On this episode of History Stories we explore how Willy Brandt helped secured peace in Europe and created elementary preconditions for an end to the Cold War and the division of Germany.
Report: Rayna Breuer
Commissioning Editor: Ricarda Otte
#willybrandt #coldwar #nobelprize #dwhistoryandculture #politics #germany
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what a great act, he could have chose not to do it but still he chose humility just like konrad in 1945.
If Willy Brandt kneeling before the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial divided people, it could only have meant there were many Nazi sympathisers around.
And that is a frightening thought.
Brandt's spontaneous gesture acknowledged Germany's guilt in the Shoah though Brandt himself bore no guilt.
No it had more to do with pride and the fact that most people at that time were not educated about the crimes we committed during WW2. Today it is different but there are still things that are not taught in schools. We focus a lot on the things that happened to the jews and to little on the crimes that were committed against the slavic population. I as a 20 year old know a lot more about certain war crimes than people that lived during that age
Germany acknowledged it. The Japanese still haven't apologized to the Chinese for what they've done.
China has not apologized for the genocide of the Uighurs either. Even more, still waging this genocide.
@@javidanmamedzadeh6765 does that mean Japan should never apologize to the people of China just because what CCP is doing in Xinjiang? Japan should apologize to Chinese people, not CCP.
@@samad3251true. They beat up and tortured my Chinese grandad. My grandad was a doctor and went to help rural patients in China. Japanese came and terrorised the area. Somehow my grandad escaped running through the mountainous forest in the middle of the night and escaping by boat back home.
@@javidanmamedzadeh6765 в своей стране им нечего извиняться. Уйгуры это потенциальные сепаратисты Китая и их держат жестко.
the whole thing with "apoligizing" is so hypocritical and stupid. That that means every human nation (including "the oppressed ones") should have apologies to each other
Willy Brandt war für mich ein wahrer POLITIKER , ein aufrechter Demokrat , ein Wahrzeichen für Versöhnung und Frieden.
"I did what people do when words fail."
THank you for this great video. Never forget
They day when Poland and the whole world forgives Germany. Honorable leader from an honorable nation.
In kurzer Amtszeit unglaublich viel Wichtiges umgesetzt, besonders Innenpolitisch.
BRAVO!
(with tears in my eyes)
Ich bin überrascht, wie viele Polen Deutsch sprechen! Auch heute noch wird deutsch an Schulen in Polen gelehrt, andersherum wissen die wenigsten (mich eingeschlossen) genauer über unsere Nachbarn Bescheid...
Ich hoffe, dass in Zukunft die Freundschaft zwischen Deutschland und Polen noch stärker wächst. 🇵🇱🤝🇩🇪
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Both countries are powerhouse in the Vatican after an Italian Popes before 1st Latin American Pope ( Francis an Argentine of Italian descent) during John Paul and Benedict’s papacy and especially during Polish Pope John Paul II’s papacy German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (who will succeeded him as Benedict XVI) as his right hand man
Polen sind keine Freunde der Deutschen, und sie wollen keine sein; Polen sind mehrheitlich deutschfeindlich und haben sich politisch fast immer so verhalten.
Oder würden die Deutschen vielleicht lernen, Polnisch zu sprechen? Die Menschen in diesem Film sprachen Deutsch, weil sie es unter Zwang lernen mussten, um die Befehle der deutschen Besatzer zu verstehen.
Great men in history
what's also noteworthy here is that brandt was a communist and in exile during the nazi regime he had all reason to say "i had nothing to do with this i was against the nazis why should i kneel" but he did this anyway
Williy Brand was't a communist. Just because sombody is for social justice he isn't a communist.
Brandt was not communist, he was in fact very anti communist in his policies, he even supported the vietnam war.
the greatest MAN i am proud of this GERMAN''s son long life 4 German GOD Bless your country
Merci pour ce beau et émouvant portrait du chancelier Brandt. Danke
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Merci pour ce rappel. Cependant, je déplore que les Allemands ne soient pas plus francophiles. Pourtant nos deux langues sont issues de la grande famille de Charlemagne. Une solide amitié France-Allemagne serait beaucoup fécond pour l'Europe que de se coller aux Anglos-Saxons qui sont beaucoup plus isolationnistes.
The kneeling set a great precedent. It is a tragedy the Barack Obama did not follow it and kneel before a memorial in Hanoi to victims of the American war against Vietnam.
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Excuse me, please!
But how can Grass comment Willy's Act as if it means NOTHING?!
Günther Grass has NO IDEA of what Greatness means!
We have "a History" ... and reguarding to what happend here, is this the most respectful honour someone can get - WOW! I am feeling my tears drop out of my eyes..
This great Man had a hard way infront of him, at that time.
Günther Guillaume.
*I'll fall on my knees for Willy!
one day I hope I can see a Japanese leader can kneel in front of the Nanjing massacre memorial hall in China！
They won't did it the don't admit that they are coward
Emperor or PM?
@@redbaron9029 if Han Chinese people memorial allow in the memory of all the han Chinese people during the Uyghur terrorist attack..why not..
😢i survived. Cold war
My morher went to warsovie in late 50s
If Chancellor Brandt's kneeling before the memorial to Jewish men and women murdered
He was our Kennedy. A great chancellor, wanted by the Nazis, but never gave up to work for a democratic Germany. He is missed! He would smash right party’s like AFD with Wehner and Schmidt. Willy, always a peace of Germany. 🇩🇪
In the Vatican Benedict XVI could German John Paul II
Did he ever bow in honor of those ethnic Germans expelled from their homelands in the eastern Reich, Sudetenland, etc? A few million died or were killed by Poles and Soviet soldiers on the way to rump Germany.
These Germans were expelled as a result of a war started by Germany. Also, your numbers are largely exaggerated. Germany had a total civilian loss of life of around 2,2 million.
@@DWHistoryandCulture, Im not exaggerating anything. My maternal ancestors were expelled from their homeland in what were East and West Prussia. I doubt young Germans even know or are taught much about this history in state schools in Germany today. Poles, the Soviet Red Army, and Czechs in The Sudetenland perpetrated atrocities in the last months of the war and in the aftermath against German civilian populations in these areas stolen from Germany.
@@CosmicHyperborean Why Benedict XVI never visited Sudetenland when he visit Czech Republic his student and Papabile when electing Francis in 2013 Christoph Schonborn was born in Czech Republic as Sudeten German he moved to Austria after expulsion and his mother grew up in Sudetenland during 1920s, 1930s, 1040s
Gigachad
What a legendary chancellor. I hope the British draw a page out of German diplomacy and return it's stolen goods to their former colonies
something of which is putin not capable of-. Putin will never kneel before victims of Katyn massacre
the british owes the same to the Indians...
Pravý politik, rovný muž. Nasledovania hodná osobnosť Európskeho formátu.
Thanks for watching and for your kind words.
Want a real reconcilation? Pay for war damages and return all stolen art and other objects.
Then also return to pre-war borders. And stolen art is returned.
@@AimeranCS
As a foreign to this problem. All what I can say is that Poland didn't ask for it. It was destroyed the same ways its population was. A real and honest reconciliation will be accepting proper reparations never took place. 70 years plus after, you don't see a proper monument honoring polish victims. I have no grounds in this matter whatsoever, as an historian I can only tell you that Polish territory was also shifted to the est and never asked for more territory. It could barely keep up with his already destroyed land. Just reflect about it and be honest as German people is known around the world. Be honest and accept your responsibility that's all.
No.
@@rotweiss958 Your answer screams I'm a fascist extremist who don't believe in Germany's responsibility from the damages cause by the war they created. Keep your thoughts as they are. I'm jot interested to judge or change someone's mind. However with the resent sick coup d'État that the German far right was planning, it makes me thing that there is a big extremist movement that Germany has pretended not to see but has been there since the end of the war. Your answer tells me I'm part of that movement.
@@rotweiss958 By the way, politicians and the EU decide what to do and when to do it, not you! Let's just wait and see...
Lol, will million of people walk out of their ‘graves’ or come out of the crematorium and walk again after he has kneeled?
what a dumb comment. whats happend is happend but to acknowledge the guilt and mistake is very important. you can't change the past.
No. But it was atonement nonetheless.
He was fighting the nazi party from exile in Sweden. He personally had nothing to apologize for. That is what makes this gesture so powerful.