The actor Matthias Brandt, youngest son of former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, has expressed a complex mix of empathy and concern regarding his father’s iconic 1970 kneeling gesture in Warsaw. In an interview with “Der Spiegel”, Brandt acknowledged the profound significance of the moment for the Federal Republic of Germany, yet confessed to personal discomfort when viewing photographs or film of the event.
The kneeling occurred on December 1970 at the memorial for the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. At the time, Chancellor Brandt explained his action as an act of “atonement” concerning “a million-fold crime committed in the abused German name”. Matthias Brandt commented on the event, questioning why his father, specifically, had taken on this symbolic burden.
This year, Matthias Brandt is scheduled to deliver the main speech at the commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the July 20, 1944, assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. His parents, Willy and Rut Brandt, were active in the resistance against Nazi Germany, initially in Norway and later in Stockholm. Willy Brandt himself maintained connections with resistance groups within Germany and had previously fled the country in 1933.
Brandt stated that his parents’ experiences fundamentally shaped his life and heavily influenced his father’s subsequent political actions. He emphasized the importance of remembering that Germany’s Chancellor at the time was a former refugee who had received asylum abroad, a circumstance that might have resulted in a vastly different outcome had assistance not been provided.
He further explained his commitment to delivering the commemorative speech as a response to the rising influence of the AfD party, suggesting a feeling of societal paralysis in addressing such political forces. Brandt contrasted the approach of his parents, who possessed a greater familiarity with and perceived less threat from right-wing extremism and characterized his father as fundamentally fearless.