FAREWELL TO THE COLD WAR

Abstract

In the history of the SPD, support for its policies has never been greater than during Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik and efforts at de-escalation. It was the time when the SPD managed to align people’s yearning for peace and reconciliation with real political necessities. Far more frequently, however, Germany’s Social Democrats have suffered from the tensions between their objective of a world without war or arms and the reality of violence, weapons and hatred. This trouble with the contradictions between what "is" and what "should be" is typical of the SPD.