page_title: Willy Brandt
section_title: Brandt's family
hierarchical_section_title: Willy Brandt / Brandt's family
caption_attribution_description: 2001_03_0275.4212 Ludwig Binder: Studentenrevolte 1967/68, West-Berlin; veröffentlicht vom Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Rechts: Peter Brandt und Freundin Maria beim Protestmarsch gegen die polnische Militärmission, 13.03.1968? [1]
context_page_description: Willy Brandt was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1964 to 1987 and served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. He was the first Social Democrat chancellor since 1930.
  Fleeing to Norway and then Sweden during the Nazi regime and working as a left-wing journalist, he took the name Willy Brandt as a pseudonym to avoid detection by Nazi agents, and then formally adopted the name in 1948. Brandt was originally considered one of the leaders of the right wing of the SPD, and earned initial fame as Governing Mayor of West Berlin. He served as Foreign Minister and as Vice Chancellor in Kurt Georg Kiesinger's cabinet, and became chancellor in 1969. As chancellor, he maintained West Germany's close alignment with the United States and focused on strengthening European integration in western Europe, while launching the new policy of Ostpolitik aimed at improving relations with Eastern Europe.
context_section_description: From 1941 until 1948, Brandt was married to Anna Carlotta Thorkildsen (the daughter of a Norwegian father and a German-American mother). They had a daughter, Ninja Brandt (born in 1940). After Brandt and Thorkildsen were divorced in 1948, Brandt married the Norwegian-born German writer Rut Hansen in the same year. Hansen and Brandt had three sons: Peter Brandt (born in 1948), Lars Brandt (born in 1951) and Matthias Brandt (born in 1961). After 32 years of marriage, Willy Brandt and Rut Hansen Brand divorced in 1980, and from the day that they were divorced they never saw each other again. On 9 December 1983, Brandt married Brigitte Seebacher (born in 1946).
caption: Peter Brandt (right) during the protests of 1968
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