2023-08-25 18:50:39
The Johannes-Rau-Haus is the seat of the SPD in Wuppertal and is located in the center of Elberfeld, across from an amusement arcade. The rooms of the party can only be reached via a winding staircase. Inside are three photos of Johannes Rau, one with Willy Brandt, and a youthful picture of Friedrich Engels, almost completely beardless. Servet Köksal, the likeable sub-district chairman, comes like “Brother Johannes” from Sedansberg and welcomes the large audience to the lecture by historian Kristina Meyer from the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation on “Willy Brandt, Israel and the SPD”. The party celebrities are represented by the member of parliament Dilek Engin and mayor Heiner Fragemann, but above all the long-time member of parliament and parliamentary group leader Reinhard Grätz, almost a gray eminence.
Willy Brandt was the first Chancellor to visit Israel; his greeting with military honors on June 7, 1973 was broadcast on Israeli television, but the sound was turned off during the national anthem. Opinions differ about the personal relationship between the reserved Brandt and Israel. While the secular Jew Shimon Peres attested to an almost religious relationship to his country, the historian Michael Wolffsohn denies any relationship. In fact, the Israeli side initially had reservations about the SPD; Golda Meir had refused to shake hands with Kurt Schumacher, who was scarred by his concentration camp imprisonment, at a conference of the Socialist International. For many emphatically internationalist social democrats, Zionism was a mistake. The encounter with Zionist social democrats in Scandinavian exile made an impression on Brandt. As Foreign Minister, he had supplied protective masks to Israel during the Six-Day War, supported by Chancellor Kiesinger but opposed to the pro-Arab Defense Minister Gerhard Schröder (both CDU).
Egon Bahr’s hasty impartiality
When Brandt became chancellor, unlike his predecessors, he did not mention Israel in the government statement. State Secretary Egon Bahr explained that the past of Hans Globke and Kiesinger was no longer a burden and that one could now conduct objective politics towards Israel. In fact, the government also included two former NSDAP members, Karl Schiller and Lauritz Lauritzen. Terror put Germany’s attitude towards Israel to the test: in 1970 there were attacks on an El Al machine and on the Jewish old people’s home in Munich. Interior Minister Genscher declared “worthless and without consequences”, as the speaker sarcastically said, that the German people would no longer allow “violence and terror”.
In fact, things got even worse with the 1972 Olympic killings. Not only the complete failure of the German authorities met with incomprehension in Israel, but also the immediate replacement of the arrested terrorists; Foreign Minister Scheel’s reference to the Israeli prisoner exchange practice was felt to be tactless. In this respect, Brandt’s visit was a much greater challenge than pictures showing a relaxed chancellor fishing on the Sea of Galilee would suggest. When visiting the Yad Vashem memorial, Brandt refrained from kneeling and instead recited Psalm 103; This left no traces in the collective memory.
On the day of his arrival in Israel, Brandt visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. : Image: Picture Alliance
The German side also gave Israel advice on how to deal with its neighbors, such as imitating the policy of détente towards Egypt. When Golda Meir, who, like Brandt, had become head of government in 1969, resolutely declared that Israel was always right, Brandt reacted with silence, according to his speechwriter Klaus Harpprecht. Only representatives of the Ashkenazi elite were invited to the reception at the German embassy; Brandt did not come into contact with the oriental Mizrachim, whom not only Golda Meir treated condescendingly. The fact that these Israelis in particular brought the conservative Likud bloc an election victory in 1977 changed Israeli society with effects that continue to this day; the SPD’s sister party, Golda Meir’s “Workers’ Party”, now has four seats in the Knesset.
Edo Reents Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 24 Amos Goldberg Published/Updated: Recommendations: 66 Professor Dr. Heinrich August Winkler Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 34
Many in the Johannes Rau House cannot understand this and much else in modern Israel; in Wuppertal, too, the mayor no longer belongs to the SPD. Graetz takes the floor somewhat erratically, surprised by the critical undertone of the speakers. He reports on trips to a country that initially had mainly orange juice factories and only one road on the coast, on encounters at community level, in sports, between trade unions. Unexpectedly, the political veteran then compares Golda Meir and Angela Merkel, who would have meant “well”, Merkel versus Putin; in the case of Meir, who was born in what is now Ukraine, it remains open. However, “well intentioned” is not only not a valid political criterion in Israel. Kristina Meyer dated the “Ice Age” of German-Israeli relations to the chancellorship of the Realpolitiker Helmut Schmidt.
#Historian #Willy #Brandt #SPD #Israel