Warschauer Kniefall
52.24972220.99413Koordinaten: 52 ° 14 ' 59 " N, 20 ° 59' 38.87 " E
Willy Brandt's genuflection in Warsaw on December 7, 1970, as part of the run by Brandt and his Ostpolitik government as a perceived around the world iconic gesture of humility an effective powerful symbol of asking for forgiveness for the German crimes of the Second World War.
The event and its immediate effect
As Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Willy Brandt put on 7 December 1970 just before the signing of the Warsaw Treaty between Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany at the memorial of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto a wreath. After straightening the rim loop he not remained standing, as usual, but sank to his knees and remained so silent about half a minute.
Hermann Schreiber, who was present, wrote a week later in the news magazine Der Spiegel:
"If this [ ... ] does not share responsibility for the crime, then does not this man -been now still makes its way through the former Warsaw Ghetto on its own initiative and kneels there - then he kneels so as not for his sake. Then he who has not needed kneels, as for all those who need it, but not since kneel - because they dare not or can not or do not dare. Then he is committed to a fault, to which he himself has not to wear, and asks for a pardon, which he himself is not required. Then he kneels there for Germany. "
The expressions of humility was surprising: for the delegation, the hosts and the public. Internationally, it was understood as a plea for forgiveness and a symbol of the Ostpolitik of Willy Brandt, the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded. In the Federal Republic of Germany, they also met with rejection - not least from the ranks of the CDU; Günter Grass even speaks of the " hate [ ... ], which was then stirred up by political opponents deliberately ." According to a mirror survey then found 48 percent of West Germans the genuflection exaggerated, 41 percent fair, 11 percent had no opinion. The press of the GDR did not mention the gesture.
How surprised and worried about the effect in Germany were Brandt's friends is also reflected in a text, the Günter Grass wrote five days later:
"How will you tell them at home? If the slope subliminally find food for defamation and bend the knees case to kowtow? But all signs - astonished, frightened, ashamed - proved Betroffensein. ( Similarly, the Polish hosts. They supposed to know German behavior, this was new to them, the word ' Israel ' was an undertone Also a residual anti-Semitism may have felt himself recognized in his anti-Zionist disguise.. ) "
Later review
In retrospect, it is agreed that the genuflection played an important role in the relaxation between the blocks. The signed on the same day Warsaw Treaty recognized the inviolability of the de facto Polish borders. For Poland signed the Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz; he survived the concentration camp Auschwitz.
Much has been speculated that Brandt had acted spontaneously. He himself wrote in his memoirs, published in 1989:
" Again and again I have been asked what it had with this gesture in coming. Whether it was about planned? No, she was not. My close associates were no less surprised than those reporters and photographers who were standing next to me, and when those who were absent from the scene, because she " is not new," expected. [ ...] I had not planned anything, but leave Wilanów Palace, where I was housed in the feeling of having to bring the particularity of Remembrance at the Ghetto Monument expressed. On the Brink of German history and under the weight of millions murdered, I did what people do when words fail. "
Egon Bahr commented in his memoirs about my time in 1996 as follows:
"As the motorcade begins to move to the ghetto memorial, compare Berthold Beitz and I our impressions. We go in peace and have no hurry to approach the dense crowd of journalists and photographers - because it suddenly becomes very quiet. That this hardy folk silent, is rare. When one approaches closer to a whisper: "He kneels I have " seen only when it was the image around the world.. To ask the friend, I have shied away at the last whiskey in the evening. That one, the known historical guilt of his people free from historical guilt, was a thought, but great words between us were unusual. "I had the feeling that a tilt of the head is not enough. ' "
Walter Scheel wrote in 2010 in a letter to the Solinger Tageblatt:
" The moment when we got out and stood before the memorial, the mood was very overwhelming. Suddenly Willy Brandt fell to his knees and every person who was present, it would want to emulate him and everyone has this gesture, this completely unplanned and spontaneous gesture, felt for unique and impressive. [ ... ] It was one of those skills Willy Brandt, which I appreciated so much with him to address the people emotionally and to set for all recognizable characters. I have not seen a politician who would have been comparable. "
About 150 meters northwest of the memorial and visible to the construction of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews from there, the genuflection was built in 2000, a monument of brick with a bronze plaque by Wiktoria Czechowska Antoniewska. The area around the monument is now called officially Skwer Willy'ego Brandta (Willy -Brandt -Platz).
2010 visited the former German Federal President Christian Wulff on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the knee If Poland.
Artistic references
The composer Gerhard Rosenfeld created an opera genuflection in Warsaw on Willy Brandt ( libretto by Philip Kochheim, world premiere in 1997 in Dortmund).
Willy Brandt Duz - friend Günter Grass leaves in Chapter 1970 of his story collection My grumble a century the " genuflection Chancellor " and Egon Bahr -hating journalists in an inner monologue about what he should write now. The eyewitness " must [ ... ] bless reluctantly where he wanted to curse and should; [ ...] [ He must be as ] one of the greatest gestures German postwar politics reluctantly pay respect. "