The Early Years, 1913–45

Abstract

The town of Lübeck, in which Willy Brandt was born on 18 December 1913, was a wealthy city which owed much of its prosperity to its port on the Baltic Sea. It had been a member of the Hansa League, and its leading patrician class was characterized by centuries of world-wide trading links which had instilled the seemingly quiet confidence which the novelist Thomas Mann depicts so well in Buddenbrooks. For the town this meant excellent cultural and educational provision from which the young Willy Brandt was later to benefit greatly. However, there was another side to the city: a poor working class which prided itself on its own traditions and culture. Between the two there was little contact.