Word: brandts
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...past that concerned Brandt so much as the future. He was thoroughly committed to the dream of European unity. At the 1969 Hague meeting of the Common Market, he forcefully advocated Britain's admission to the EEC. He spoke eloquently about his belief that Europe could achieve economic integration by 1980; yet he hesitated to use Bonn's economic muscle as a political weapon, reasoning that it could revive memories of the "same old bad Germans...
...Brandt himself earned a reputation as a "good German." The illegitimate son of a Lübeck shopgirl, he joined the Socialist youth organization in 1931, and was forced to leave Germany after Hitler came to power. He first came to world attention as mayor of West Berlin between 1957 and 1966. During the recurring Berlin crises, including East Germany's erection of the Wall in 1961, Brandt was the symbol of his city's determination to remain free...
...Brandt established an image abroad for himself as a man of fairness and integrity, which did much to restore a sense of pride to the West German nation. In both East and West he made Germany salonfáhig (socially acceptable). No longer did young German tourists in France or Holland have to pretend that they were Swedes, and no longer did the governments of Eastern Europe blame all their problems on the "revanchist West Germans." During the 1972 national election, which he won handily, Brandt chose a slogan that would have been unthinkable only a few years earlier: GERMANS...
Paradoxically, Brandt has always seemed a greater man to the rest of the world than he did to his own people. Many Germans saw him not as a world statesman but as an erratic politician who was subject to spasms of lethargy and drink-fueled melancholy, who talked aimlessly of quitting after suffering electoral setbacks. Germans who preferred their leaders to be stark (strong) were bothered by his indecision and inability to keep his political house in order...
...Chancellor usually responded to such criticisms by shrugging his imposing shoulders and saying: "It is too late to remake Willy Brandt." By resigning suddenly last week-rather than finding a scapegoat for the spy scandal -Brandt showed that he still has no intention of remaking himself...