Editing Willy Brandt (section)

== Early life and World War II ==
Willy Brandt was born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm in the [[Free City of Lübeck]] ([[German Empire]]) on 18 December 1913.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jessup|first=John E.|title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945–1996|year=1998|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|page=89|url=https://www.questia.com/read/106899354/an-encyclopedic-dictionary-of-conflict-and-conflict|access-date=18 September 2017|archive-date=10 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010024655/https://www.questia.com/read/106899354/an-encyclopedic-dictionary-of-conflict-and-conflict|url-status=dead}}</ref> His mother was Martha Frahm (1894–1969)<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-02 |title=Martha Luise Wilhelmine Kuhlmann |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Martha-Kuhlmann/6000000008992524770 |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=geni_family_tree |language=en-US}}</ref> a single parent, who worked as a cashier for a department store. His father was a teacher from [[Hamburg]] named John Heinrich Möller (1887–1958)<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7tRyJy-An1MC&q=John+Heinrich+Möller+1887&pg=PA381 | title=Politik und Militär in Deutschland: Die Bundespräsidenten und Bundeskanzler und ihre Beziehung zu Soldatentum und Bundeswehr| isbn=9783937885360| last1=Kilian| first1=Dieter E.| year=2011| publisher=BoD – Books on Demand}}</ref> whom Brandt never met. As his mother worked six days a week, he was mainly brought up by his mother's stepfather, Ludwig Frahm (1875–1935). He joined the "Socialist Youth" in 1929 and at age 16 became a full member of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]] (SPD) in 1930 despite the age minimum normally being 18. He also wrote for the ''Volksbote'', a local Social Democrat daily, under editor-in-chief [[Julius Leber]], who would have a "decisive influence" on him.{{sfn | Marshall | 1997 | p=8}}

He, along with half the youth-wing of the Lübeck SPD, left the party to join the more left wing [[Socialist Workers' Party of Germany|Socialist Workers Party]] (SAP) in October 1931, which was allied to the [[Workers' Party of Marxist Unification|POUM]] in Spain and, more significant to Brandt, had close ties with the [[Labour Party (Norway)|Norwegian Labour Party]]. His break with Leber and the SPD lost him promised financial support for university studies and his job at the ''Volksbote''. After passing his ''[[Abitur]]'' in 1932 at ''Johanneum zu Lübeck'', he took work at the shipbroker and ship's agent F.H. Bertling.<ref name="w493">{{cite web | title=Working-class youngster in Lübeck | website=Willy Brandt Biografie | date=1 June 2017 | url=https://www.willy-brandt-biography.com/working-class-youngster-in-luebeck/ | access-date=13 May 2024}} (source names F. H. Bertling)</ref> In 1933 he left Germany for Norway to escape [[Nazism|Nazi]] persecution. It was at this time that he adopted the pseudonym '''Willy Brandt''' to avoid detection by Nazi agents. In 1934, he took part in the founding of the [[International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations]], and was elected to its secretariat.{{sfn | Marshall | 1997 | p=9–16}} Willy Brandt became one of [[Wilhelm Reich]]’s subjects for his experiments on the electrophysiology of pleasure and anxiety.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bennett |first=Philip |date=2025-01-14 |title=Wilhelm Reich's Early Writings on Work Democracy: A Theoretical Basis for Challenging Fascism Then and Now |url=https://www.cnsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Bennett.20.1.Mar_.101.pdf |journal=The International Journal of Psychoanalysis |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=53–73 |doi=10.1080/10455751003655898}}</ref>

[[File:Herbert Frahm circa 1933–1940.jpg|thumb|left|Herbert Frahm's Norwegian passport photograph, {{circa}} 1938–1940]]

Brandt was in Germany from September to December 1936, disguised as a Norwegian student named '''Gunnar Gaasland'''. The real Gunnar Gaasland was married to Gertrud Meyer from Lübeck in a [[marriage of convenience]] to protect her from deportation. Meyer had joined Brandt in Norway in July 1933. In 1937, during the [[Spanish Civil War]], Brandt worked in Spain as a journalist. In 1938, the German government revoked his citizenship, so he applied for Norwegian citizenship. In 1940, he was arrested in Norway by occupying German forces, but his real identity was not uncovered as he wore a Norwegian uniform. Upon his release, he escaped to [[Sweden during World War II|neutral Sweden]]. In August 1940, he became a Norwegian citizen, receiving his passport from the [[Norwegian legation in Stockholm]], where he lived until the end of the war. He lectured in Sweden on 1 December 1940 at [[Bommersvik]] College about problems experienced by the [[social democrats]] in [[Nazi Germany]] and the occupied countries at the start of the [[Second World War]]. In exile in Norway and Sweden, he learned Norwegian and Swedish. He spoke Norwegian fluently, and retained a close relationship with Norway.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The years of exile and the postwar period (1933–1947) - Willy Brandt and the unification of Europe - CVCE Website |url=https://www.cvce.eu/en/recherche/unit-content/-/unit/f28057ae-f00f-4677-8327-d97d19023b80/94934910-918b-4133-917f-b28e40000a38 |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=www.cvce.eu}}</ref>

In late 1946, Brandt returned to [[Berlin]], working for the Norwegian government. In 1948, he re-joined the SPD and became a German citizen again, formally adopting the pseudonym Willy Brandt as his legal name. In 2021, it became known that Brandt served as a paid informant for the US [[Counterintelligence Corps]] from 1948 to 1952. He supplied reports on circumstances in the GDR, including the situation of East German authorities and industries, as well as Soviet troops.<ref>{{citation|surname1=Klaus Wiegrefe|periodical=Der Spiegel|title=Informant »O-35-VIII«: Willy Brandt war für den US-Geheimdienst aktiv|issn=2195-1349|date=17 December 2021|language=German|url=https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/willy-brandt-war-bis-1952-informant-des-us-geheimdienstes-cic-a-1d29dd17-55a0-44b9-8f65-7d726772f988|access-date=18 December 2021
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Willy Brandt war Informant für US-Militärgeheimdienst|periodical=[[Die Zeit]]|publisher=|url=https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2021-12/willy-brandt-us-geheimdienst-cic-informant|format=|access-date=|last=|date=18 December 2021|language=|pages=|quote= |last1=Schlitt |first1=Anna-Lena }}</ref> According to [[Thomas Boghardt]], Brandt and SPD man [[:de:Hans Emil Hirschfeld|Hans E. Hirschfeld]] received 200,000 [[German Mark]] from the Americans in 1950 for promoting his political career, after both had met with the Americans at the German CIA headquarters in [[Frankfurt]]. Both were sworn to "secrecy". The Americans wanted to strengthen the SPD over the Communists in Berlin. Over the next two years, Hirschfeld received a further 106,000 Marks. Even after the end of his informant activities, he is said to have remained in contact with US intelligence.<ref>{{cite web |access-date=2024-07-05 |author=Thomas Boghardt |language=en |pages=378 |publisher=U.S. Army Center of Military History |title=Covert Legions: U.S. Army Intelligence in Germany, 1944-1949 |url=https://history.army.mil/html/books/045/45-5/cmhPub_45-5.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404161854/https://history.army.mil/html/books/045/45-5/cmhPub_45-5.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 April 2022}}<!-- auto-translated from German by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>