ABSTRACT
The decisive 1991 Bundestag debate witnessed one of Willy Brandt's last public appearances. The cancer-stricken Bundestag president by seniority returned to the floor to prevent "Berlin, Outpost of Freedom in difficult years" from being "fobbed off with a meaningless honorific title." The Outpost of Freedom narrative came not only to define Berlin's Western sectors, but also gave its political leadership considerable political influence in Washington, DC, reflecting as it did the Truman Doctrine. The Berlin SPD remigres subverted the occupier–occupied power relationship with American authorities by shrewdly leveraging their location at the focal point of the Cold War, as well as the moral authority and personal contacts they had developed during their time in exile. The intensity with which the characterization of West Berlin as the Outpost of Freedom shaped the perspective of contemporary actors indicates the narrative's success as much as it reinforces the relevance of ideas in the historical process.
