Didn't the concept of "change through rapprochement" ultimately change both sides, Irina Mohr asks. Of course, says historian emeritus Peter Brandt, son of Willy Brandt. "The thinking has changed," he says. Ultimately, the GDR was voluntarily annexed to the FRG. "That could not have been foreseen in the mid-1960s," says Brandt. "A great deal of conceptual thinking had to change in order for that to happen." -mb

Katrin Rulle

Irina Mohr steers the discussion back to the 1960s, a time marked by rigidity, mistrust and antagonism. How did Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr respond to react? And how can we adapt their approaches today? At that time, when the Berlin Wall was built, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, with the world at a dramatic brink of an abyss, his father and Bahr kept seeking ways to handle the situation, says Peter Brandt. Accepting the territorial status quo was important, as was the "policy of small steps," which meant cautious rapprochement and trial and error. -sf

Katrin Rulle