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The Presentation of a Cold Warrior: Willy Brandt’s My Road to Berlin (1960)
[review]
Reviewed workBrandt, Willy; Lania, Leo: Mein Weg nach Berlin. München: Kindler 1960
Abstract My Road to Berlin, or Mein Weg nach Berlin, presents a Willy Brandt that confounds a present-day reader’s expectations. While the 1960 autobiography of the then-mayor of West Berlin links his career with the familiar story of democracy’s development in Germany, this work nevertheless retains an unex... view more
My Road to Berlin, or Mein Weg nach Berlin, presents a Willy Brandt that confounds a present-day reader’s expectations. While the 1960 autobiography of the then-mayor of West Berlin links his career with the familiar story of democracy’s development in Germany, this work nevertheless retains an unexpected edge. In one surprising scene, the mayor denounces his East Berlin SED counterparts as a ›Communist foreign legion‹ whom ›the citizens of my city had decisively defeated‹ during the Second Berlin Crisis of 1958 (p. 17). In the book, Brandt comes off as a Cold Warrior of steely determination rather than a Brückenbauer bridging ideological divides. Far from being out of character, however, My Road to Berlin captures Brandt at a pivotal moment in his career, when he sought to offer himself to both West German voters and a global public as a viable alternative to Konrad Adenauer.... view less
Classification
General History
Free Keywords
Amerikanisierung; Biographie; Eliten; Geistes- und Ideengeschichte; Intellectual History; Geschichtspolitik; Internationale Beziehungen; Kalter Krieg; Cold War Studies; Literatur; Medien; Parteien; Politik; Transnationale Geschichte; Verflechtung; Vergangenheitspolitik; Westernisierung; Amerika; Nordamerika; USA; Europa; Westeuropa; Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 163-170
Journal
Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History, 14 (2017) 1
ISSN
1612-6041
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed