1970 On December 7, according to the schedule, as the Prime Minister of West Germany, Brandt and his group will go to the Jewish quarantine area of Warsaw during the World War II and lay a wreath to the monument of the uprising there.
Prime Minister Brandt, who came to the monument to the uprising, silently sorted out the wreath he presented, then took two steps back, knelt on his knees in front of everyone, and paid silence to the victims. This scene was beyond the expectations of everyone present, and no one would have thought that Brandt, as the Prime Minister, would express his condolences in this way. After a brief shock, the reporters around
After a brief shock, they picked up the cameras in their hands and took this shocking scene from different angles. If it were someone else, they might be called "show", but when media around the world reported on this incident, no media said that Brandt's show was just respect for the great anti-fascist fighter.
This kneeling is regarded as a milestone event for Germany and Eastern European countries and even the world to reunite. Many people even said, "The German Chancellor kneels down, and the German people stand up."
is interesting that the German people have different views on Brandt's kneeling, and even more than half of them do not agree. So what's going on? Is Brandt's kneeling really so meaningful? What are the deeper reasons?
1. Brandt, a German Chancellor who had been persecuted by the Nazis, was born in a poor family in a city near the Baltic Sea in 1913. Because he was an illegitimate son, he took his mother's surname. When he was young, his mother remarried, and Brandt had to live in someone else's house until his grandfather retired from the army and returned home.
Brand's grandfather and mother are both members of German Social Democratic Party . Under their influence, 15-year-old Brandt joined the Social Democratic Party's Socialist Youth League.
17 years old, Brandt officially became a member of Social Democratic Party . The Social Democratic Party and the Nazi Party have always been inconsistent with each other. The German Authorization Act of 1933 was the only democratic party to vote against it. So the SPD was suppressed and persecuted later. In July 1933, the Nazi Party directly banned the SPD.
In this context, Brandt, a member of the Social Democratic Party, had to make a living abroad. left Germany in 1933 and returned to Germany in October 1945. During the 12 years, he continued to write articles to report the truth about Germany under Hitler's rule, and vigorously condemns Germany's aggression.
So later generations always add the title of "anti-Nazi fighter" when Brandt is used. This is not obtained by his kneeling in front of the Warsaw monument. He is a person who has suffered Nazi persecution and opposes Nazis and Hitler.
After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, Brandt became a member of the Federal Parliament and officially began his political journey. was elected as the Speaker of the West Berlin Parliament and the Mayor of Berlin in 1955 and 1957. Later, Brandt served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party and minister of national defense. In 1969, he passed the general election and became the prime minister of the Federal Republic of Germany.
During his tenure, he continued to work hard to ease relations with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. In addition to the shocking kneeling in 1970, he also signed the "Non-aggression Treaty" with Poland , stipulating the border between the two sides, and announced that he would not make any territorial claims in the future.
971 Brandt also visited the Soviet Union as prime minister and signed a peace and friendship treaty with the Soviet Union, ending the long-term hostile relations between the two countries. In terms of East Germany, Brandt also prompted the warming of relations between Germany. In short, with his continuous efforts, the long-term tense situation in Europe has been alleviated to a certain extent, and he himself won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.
2. Behind the kneeling of Warsaw
Warsaw shows the world the pattern of Brandt as the Federal Chancellor of the German Federal Republic of China, and also makes the world praise it. The most important message conveyed by Brandt's kneeling is to tell the world the Germans' repentance and show the world the Germans' knowledge of mistakes can be corrected.
Obviously, this kneeling brought too much to Germany.
From then on, people remember not only the Nazi iron hooves that were slaughtering wildly on the European continent, but also the German Chancellor who confessed and observed silence in front of the Warsaw monument. In people's eyes, the German Chancellor represents Germany, and the German Chancellor's kneeling confession represents Germany's sincere repentance.
In fact, at the beginning, Poland and Warsaw Pact countries were not willing to accept the kneeling of the German Chancellor, and even did not put this photo in the newspapers and magazines of Poland at that time, and it did not seem to be like trying to convey the news to the public. There are two main reasons for
.
The first is that in the context of Cold War , Poland still belongs to the Soviet camp. The top government officials are worried that this move will weaken the people's hostility to West Germany, so they are unwilling to show the people the kneeling West German Prime Minister.
The second reason is that the harm Nazi Germany brought to Poland and other countries was too heavy. For a time, the top leaders could not accept that a West German prime minister knelt in front of the monument so calmly and elegantly.
So, even though a large number of reporters took this photo at that time, it was deleted during the subsequent review, and only a local newspaper in Warsaw published this photo.
Fortunately, these photos have not been sealed for too long. Perhaps it is the need of the current situation, and various media have gradually relaxed their reports on this matter. It was after this incident that the relations between Federal Germany and Eastern European countries were quickly heated up, and paved the way for the subsequent Federal Germany to enter United Nations in 1974.
3. Those Warsaw kneeling
Of course, just this kneeling cannot lead to reconciliation between West Germany and Eastern Europe from the root. Brandt is a prime minister who attaches great importance to relations with Eastern Europe. He proposed the "New Oriental Policy" when he first came to power. The main contents are two points:
1. Get understanding from Eastern European countries when maintaining close relations with Western allies;
2. Recognize the situation between the two Germanys and strengthen exchanges between the East and West Germany.
can be seen that Brandt's kneeling shows his attitude. In fact, people do need to show such an attitude to meet their own political needs.
After Warsaw's kneeling was transmitted back to West Germany, nearly half of West Germans felt that this move was a bit inappropriate and felt that it was a bit too far. In other words, Brandt's move did not cater to the mainstream German public opinion. To put it bluntly, in the hearts of the Germans, this kneeling damaged Germany's reputation.
Above, Brandt's identity was also mentioned, he was an anti-Nazi person who had been persecuted by Nazis. The relationship between him and the Nazis is that he is both German. Can he confess on behalf of the former Nazis? And in fact, from Germany's defeat to 1949, most Germans still believed that the Nazis were essentially good, but were used up.
Even many Germans believe that in the context of the Great Depression in 1930, war was also one of the ways out, and they just lost. For them, launching a war is essentially a last resort and cannot be considered a repentance. The wrong thing is their massacre of Jews .
The Germans really set off anti-war thoughts on World War II should wait until 1990 and Germany unify , which requires a higher voice in the process of European integration of . So it needs to fight the war and express its determination, and the actual results are also obvious. After the UK's Brexit , in most people's eyes, Germany's voice in EU even surpassed France.
Tell me a more cruel fact. After the establishment of West Germany, in order to quickly restore West Germany to fight against the Soviet Union, the United States overthrew or pardoned a large number of German war criminals in just over three years. Many of the Nazi military officers and politicians returned to the military and political circles of West Germany and continued their old duties.
Even those war criminals who should be executed are not punished. How can we expect the German people to reflect deeply on the war? For many years, Warsaw's kneeling has been portrayed as a symbol of Germany's repentance and confession, shaping Germany into a "prodigal son's return" different from Japan.
But behind this kneeling is a prime minister who cannot represent the Nazis, a group of citizens who do not recognize this kneeling, and an undeniable political need. cannot be denied. Warsaw's kneeling will have a great positive impact on Germany and Europe, but we should not over-elevate this behavior and should look at the problem rationally at any time in the international situation.
Text/Classical Case
References:
1, "Kneeling in Warsaw", Guo Li
2, "Villebrant and New Oriental Policy", Zhang Yafeng
