Yale University Library Digital Repository Collection Name: Henry A. Kissinger papers, part II Series Title: Series I. Early Career and Harvard University Box: 9 Folder: 21 Folder Title: Brandt, Willy Persistent URL: http://yul-fi-prd1.library.yale.internal/catalog/digcoll:554986 Repository: Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library Contact Information Phone: (203) 432-1735 Email: [email protected] Mail: Manuscripts and Archives Sterling Memorial Library Sterling Memorial Library P.O. Box 208240 New Haven, CT 06520 Your use of Yale University Library Digital Repository indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use http://guides.library.yale.edu/about/policies/copyright Find additional works at: http://yul-fi-prd1.library.yale.internal February 4, 1959 Mayor Willy Brandt Berlin ;ermany Dear Mayor Brandt: I returned to the United States a few days ago, and want to lose no time in thanking you for the extraordinary und interesting experience afforded to me in Berlin. It was of course a pleasure to have the chance to meet you. It seems to me that the courage and matter-of-factne$s of the Berliners should be an inspiration for the rest of the free world, and in this respect Berlin may well be the conscience of all of us. I want you to know that whatever I can do within my limited iowers here will U.) done. All good wishes and kind regards. ,Ancerely yours, iienryrt. Kissinger 2ZRI .4 xlsaldel Ibnala x1114; xamtneL abasme noyAM 11590 eydeb wel a ap.ts.ta be4inU ea pi benlidvi I ea lol pox anlAnadI n1 salt on pool od. /new bas ,oua (34 bebnolls eonsineqxe sni$eels.tni bag losnibPxotraxo ea evict ei image's s ea-woo lo asw it .nllnea n1 em •e woo etti Isa emoi amuse il .uox *sax oa itonsno as ed blmodu elentlesd ea lo ensniosl-lo.nsiJsa bas eta ni bas eenl ad/ lo $een eti loI Als lo Ils to soneiosnoo sa ed Ilew xsm 111110C Ioeqatm cm niditw ob as, I leveJsriw $s41.1 woni o.1 pox insw I .enob 111w vied emLewoki .ebns3sn balA bas aerielw boos 11A ,enuox laeleonle Iegabsea .A Tuidi L1 June 1, 1960 Mayor Willy Brandt Berlin Germany Dear Mayor Brandt: I am writing to thank you very much for sending me a copy of your publication on "Berlin's Impor- tance for Human Relations between Bast and West." I found it very interesting and informative. The situation in Berlin has been on my mind a great deal, and I want you to know that your efforts have my sympathy. With kind regards. Sincerely yours, Henry A. Kissinger AtiuLX yigseraws. 3T3C61.6T2l IOALSO ATM Ftriq LeRnqs. ▪ eXtubmcpo *en Xon co FMK cpwc %mix sttoLca puts peep au ma wog w excw; gesr sruci LPG eTCavrTou Tu EGLITu Pve • ratoLanTAws • AVIC*, tonne? TC AGO. rucnsecTuR cwuce Vat gnissu yerwcrous pwcasen goer X0111. brOpTTCIKTOU 00 iiRGITTV I S rab3X- A61.1 mncp ;cm asucguR ms e cob) °I ALTrrog co rpm* Ion Dews. maXos. pLirmqc: ceLmvul 861-T T" wwIoi MTI pLwaqr lnu6 r' raeo DER REGIERENDE BURGERMEISTER VON•BERLIN j_DBERLIN-SCHONEBERG, DEN Geschäftszeichen: 24 August 1962 RUDOLPH-WILDE-PLATZ FERNRUF: 71 02 61, APP. 33-5' Y (95) (nur Im Innenbetrieb) Professor Henry A. KISSINGER Ass. Director, Harvard Center for International Affairs 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge 38, Mass. /U.S.A. Iii Professor Kissiner, ee-\ I heard with particular pleasure that you are coming to Berlin from November 17th to 19th, 1962 on the occasion of the Third German-American Conference. I want to welcome you in advance to our city and am greatly looking forward to greeting you personally. The Conference program will leave you little time for looking around our city. It would therefore give me great if, after the close of the Conference, you would remain here an additional day as a guest of the Berlin Senate in order to gain a personal impression of the situation in our city since the erection of the Wall and also the progress made in rebuilding. II shall await your reply with the greatest interest, Sincerely yours, ( Willy Brandt ) . September 18, 1962 The donorable Willy Brandt Derlin-Schdnebers Rudolph-Wilde-Platz West merlin, Germany Raw Mayor Irma I am happy to accept your very nice in- vitation to stay an extra day in Berlin after the German-American Conference. look forward to hearing further details from you. With kind regards. Sincerely yours, Henry A. Kissinger op sol ,81 -.311 yilrw sidsloaoh orrf sislq -obi y.nairsa4) ,a11-1,11 ToitaK las4 --Ica 9212 NW, 21,a% ScAsail al vAsd ma I Is3la nitnissi via Anus as roe *2 1102362/v 4WINSVOIODD as:4171m.1smlo0 altslub sallised oi ly:sw=1 'loci I .uox wet .airsags2 4.1111 (aluoy Icials3nIt isgallal2 .A vast! WILLY BRANDT 1 Berlin 62 (Schöneberg), March 18, 1963 Rathaus Mr. Prof. Henry A. Kissinger Littauer Center Harvard University Cambridge, Mass. / USA Dear Professor Kissinger, The "BerlinBriefing" enclosed with this letter is the first of a series that will reach you and a few other friends. When you receive one you may be sure that it is well informed and intended to pass on thoughts that are of genuine concern to us herer I hope that these communications will become useful to you in your deeply valued efforts on behalf of Berlin. Sincerely yours, Etc3 BERLIN BRIEFING March 18, 1963 personal + The Berlin elections which brought an overwhelming victory to Willy Brandt's party, enabling him to create a new government in record time, will have important consequences for Berlin and, perhaps, for Germany. Willy Brandt has strengthened the executive arm of his government. The new Senate is younger, more prominent and probably more imaginative than the last. Brandt persuaded the renouned economist Karl Schiller to remain in Berlin as Senator for Economics, and one of German democracy's most impressive legal minds Adolf Arndt has joined the executive team as Senator for Scientific and Cultural Affairs. A reorganisation in City Hall brings the administration of security matters closer to the chief executive and provides a firmer basis for conducting viability planning. Heinrich Albertz, hitherto Senator for Internal Affairs, has become Brandt's debuty Mayor. The two men function well together; Albertz will relieve Brandt of many time-consuming routine chores. Willy Brandt wants more time for the major problems devolving on Berlin from the East-West conflict. The election returns reveal a clear-cut constellation of political opinion: SPD 61.0, CDU 284, FDP 7.9%, and a mere 01.4% for the communist SED. With only 20.889 votes left the communists have lost, since 1958, one- third of their following in West Berlin. Willy Brandt was elected to the legislature with the highest vote given to any candidate: 75.8$. Although the election results are clear, the meaning of the vote has been confused by some western commentators who exaggerated outside influences on the outcome or even implied, as the communists did in a desparate attempt to cover-up their defeat, that Berliners have gone "soft". Regarding "outside" influences, the Brussels development and the Bonn- Paris treaty did aggrevate the Berliners, who knew they were of one mind with Willy Brandt. However, these events - and criticism of de Gaulle - were not what cost the Berlin CDU so many votes. Since last Fall, and throughout the campaign, polls showed no basic change in the relative strength of the two major parties. Aggrevation over repeated government crises in Bonn did present the Berlin CDU with a serious handicap, but not necessarily an insurmountable one. Berliners are open-minded. The local CDU failed to make any headway with them in an up-hill fight because it chose to campaign in a style and with issues that were not convincing here. Perhaps the CDU's first mistake was to pose the issue as one of personal- ities without having a candidate who could rival Willy Brandt. Before the campaign West Berliners had a favorable impression of Franz Amrehn as a selfless debuty Mayor and loyal "Beamte". -2- But Amrehn and the CDU damaged this modestly advantageous image by the style of their attack on Willy Brandt: with slogans and dramatic stunts intending to show Brandt up as an adventurer with illusions. The climax was intended to be Amrehn's ultimatum threatening to break up the SPD/CDU coalition government if Brandt did not cancel his appointment with Khrushchev. West Berliners did not buy that. They feel protected under Willy Brandt's leadership. With hindsight a great many people here felt that Brandt should have seen Khrushchev anyway. But even his decision not to do so, with a shattered government at his back, was more evidence to Berliners that the CDU's charges were false: Brandt's behavior was in character as a dependable and as a democratic leader. West Berliners are realistic about the chances of opening the Wall and soon seeing relatives on the other side. The level of their expectations is rather low, but they do want reliable leaders to keep trying. When Willy Brandt tried, his coalition partner tripped him up. After that the CDU could only lose. Hitherto, Berlin resistance norms have required the democratic parties to agree on principle matters; the "great coalition" in Berlin between SPD and CDU lay under the sanctity of a taboo, and since the early days of the blockade there has, in consequence, never been a foreign-policy debate in the Berlin legislature. These standards are now being questioned. The coalition taboo is broken. When the CDU insisted on becoming the opposition, the SPD formed a new government with the FDP.