Word: willies
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Ever since West German Chancellor Willy Brandt launched his celebrated Ostpolitik eight months ago, he has met vitriolic resistance from the East Germans. No agreement for better relations between the two halves of Germany could be reached, they stubbornly declared, until Bonn grants full diplomatic recognition to East Germany. But last week, in a sudden turnabout, East German Party Boss Walter Ulbricht dropped his old preconditions. In a speech published in Neues Deutschland, the official newspaper of the East German Communist Party, Ulbricht in effect accepted two of the points proposed by Brandt at last month's summit meeting...
With those words, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt last January sought to underscore the uncertain outlook for his celebrated Ostpolitik, whose aim is to close the gap between the two halves of the divided nation. Last week, after a one-day summit meeting with East German Premier Willi Stoph in the West German city of Kassel, even that cautious phraseology seemed too optimistic. The results of the Kassel conference, Brandt conceded sadly, "prove once more how deep is the trench between the two parts of Germany...
...German claims to the lands east of the Oder-Neisse Line, which has demarcated the Polish-German border since the war's end, in return for better relations with Poland. Brandt's words were also intended for the East German Communist regime. Next week East German Premier Willi Stoph is scheduled to meet with Brandt in the West German city of Kassel in the second summit between the two Germanys...
Changing Reality. Some city fathers, in fact, have complained that the mural's visual movements are distracting for entertainers and lecturers. But Willi Kreiterling, director of the cultural center and instrumental in getting Agam the commission, insists that "Agam's murals no more distract than the elaborate decorations in a Baroque church." For his part, the 42-year-old Israeli artist pays tribute to the city's daring in accepting his first experiment with a "total environment," and he is proud that traditional ethnic bitterness was overcome. "The Germans were willing to meet my every technical exigency...
Nonetheless, as Brandt stepped from his special train in Erfurt one morning last week, 3,000 East Germans had gathered. When Brandt, accompanied by East German Premier Willi Stoph (see box) walked across a square to the Hotel Erfurter Hof, the cheers began: "Willy! Willy! Willy!" When the two men stepped inside, the crowd broke through the police lines and surged across the square. Then, as if to make sure that nobody mistook which Willy they meant, they shouted: "Willy Brandt ans Fenster [Willy Brandt to the window]!" Moved to tears, Brandt briefly appeared at a third-story window...