page_title: Willy Brandt
section_title: Death and memorials
hierarchical_section_title: Willy Brandt / Death and memorials
caption_attribution_description: English: Willy Brandt Memorial in Nuremberg, Willy Brandt Platz, Sculptor Josef Tabachnyk Deutsch: Willy Brandt Denkmal in Nürnberg, Willy Brandt Platz, Bildhauer Josef Tabachnyk
context_page_description: Willy Brandt was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1964 to 1987 and served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. He was the first Social Democrat chancellor since 1930.
  Fleeing to Norway and then Sweden during the Nazi regime and working as a left-wing journalist, he took the name Willy Brandt as a pseudonym to avoid detection by Nazi agents, and then formally adopted the name in 1948. Brandt was originally considered one of the leaders of the right wing of the SPD, and earned initial fame as Governing Mayor of West Berlin. He served as Foreign Minister and as Vice Chancellor in Kurt Georg Kiesinger's cabinet, and became chancellor in 1969. As chancellor, he maintained West Germany's close alignment with the United States and focused on strengthening European integration in western Europe, while launching the new policy of Ostpolitik aimed at improving relations with Eastern Europe.
context_section_description: Willy Brandt died of colon cancer at his home in Unkel, a town on the River Rhine, on 8 October 1992, at the age of 78. He was given a state funeral and was buried at the cemetery at Zehlendorf in Berlin.
  The Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation was established in 1994. It serves to honor the memory of Brandt's political accomplishments and his commitment to peace, freedom and democracy. The foundation runs two permanent exhibitions: one in Berlin, and the other in Lübeck, where Brandt was born. Other works of the foundation include oversight of Brandt's papers, speeches and letters (the Berlin Edition), historical research as well as organizing lectures and international conferences.
  When the SPD moved its headquarters from Bonn back to Berlin in the mid-1990s, the new headquarters was named the "Willy Brandt Haus". One of the buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels was named after him in 2008.
  On 6 December 2000, a memorial to Willy Brandt and Warschauer Kniefall was unveiled in Warsaw, Poland.
  German artist Johannes Heisig painted several portraits of Brandt of which one was unveiled as part of an honoring event at German Historical Institute Washington, DC on 18 March 2003. Spokesmen amongst others were former German Federal Minister Egon Bahr and former U.S. Secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
  In 2009, the Willy-Brandt-Memorial was opened up in Nuremberg at the Willy-Brandt Square. It was created by the artist Josef Tabachnyk.
  In 2009, the University of Erfurt renamed its graduate school of public administration as the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy. A private German-language secondary school in Warsaw, Poland, is also named after Brandt.
  The main boulevard on the north entrance to Montenegrin capital Podgorica was named Willy Brandt Boulevard in 2011.
  Brandt also has an unusual memorial in Hammersmith in London, United Kingdom. In 1963, when he was Mayor of West Berlin, Brandt travelled to Hammersmith with a street lamp from West Berlin, and presented it to the Mayor of Hammersmith to mark its twinning with Neukölln. The lamp now stands on the wall of Westcott Lodge, facing Furnival Gardens, with a commemorative plaque below it.
  Although Brandt had only served five years in office as Chancellor of Germany, he remains as one of the most popular politicians in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.
  The new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, currently scheduled to open in late 2020, is also named in his honor.
caption: Willy-Brandt-Memorial in Nuremberg by the artist Josef Tabachnyk, 2009
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