Editing Hans-Dietrich Genscher (section)

== Federal Minister of the Interior ==
After the [[1969 West German federal election|federal election of 1969]] Genscher was instrumental in the formation of the social-liberal coalition of [[Chancellor of Germany|chancellor]] [[Willy Brandt]] and was on 22 October 1969 appointed as [[Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany)|federal minister of the interior]]. 
In 1972, while minister for the interior, Genscher rejected Israel's offer to send an Israeli special forces unit to Germany to deal with the [[Munich massacre|Munich Olympics hostage crisis]]. He offered himself as a hostage under the condition that the Israeli athletes would be released, but the leader of the terror group rejected that offer. <ref name="Die Rolle von Hans-Dietrich Genscher">{{cite web |title=Die Rolle von Hans-Dietrich Genscher |url=https://www.daserste.de/information/reportage-dokumentation/vom-traum-zum-terror-muenchen-72/hintergrund/die-rolle-von-hans-dietrich-genscher-100.html |website=www.daserste.de |access-date=16 July 2024}}</ref> A flawed rescue attempt by German police forces at [[Fürstenfeldbruck]] air base resulted in a bloody shootout, which left all eleven hostages, five terrorists, and one German policeman dead. Genscher then offered to resign as Minister of the Interior to chancellor Brandt, but Brandt rejected the offer.<ref name="Die Rolle von Hans-Dietrich Genscher" /> Genscher's popularity with Israel declined further when he endorsed the release of the three captured attackers following [[Lufthansa Flight 615|the hijacking of a Lufthansa aircraft]] on 29 October 1972.<ref name="Günsche-2016"/><ref name="Der Spiegel-2012">{{cite web|title=1972 Olympics Massacre: Germany's Secret Contacts to Palestinian Terrorists|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/germany-maintained-contacts-with-palestinians-after-munich-massacre-a-852322.html|work=[[Der Spiegel]]|access-date=26 July 2013|date=28 August 2012}}</ref>

In the SPD–FDP coalition, Genscher helped shape Brandt's policy of deescalation with the communist East, commonly known as ''[[Ostpolitik]]'', which was continued under [[Chancellor of Germany|chancellor]] [[Helmut Schmidt]] after Brandt's resignation in 1974.<ref name="Hofmann-1992"/> He would later be a driving factor in continuing this policy in the new conservative-liberal coalition under [[Helmut Kohl]].<ref name="Deutscher Bundestag-2016"/>