ABSTRACT
Willy Brandt’s Eastern policy (Ostpolitik) was in essence a pan-European policy. Thus, he necessarily aimed at the rearrangement of European security architecture.1 Ever since the mid-1960s, Brandt, just like French President Charles de Gaulle, was convinced that divided Germany would only grow together once again in a process of overcoming the East-West conflict in Europe. As he explained in an interview in the summer of 1967 during his term as foreign minister in the Grand Coalition of 1966 to 1969, ‘We need an orientation that puts the German question within the European context, and for this purpose, we need a concept that contains the basic characteristics of a peace order.’2 In talking to French President Georges Pompidou, he confirmed in January 1971: ‘We are certain that our national problem will not be resolved in an isolated manner but rather that it will be [resolved] if a modification occurs between the two parts of Europe.’3
