Berlin Edition

Edition 'Willy Brandt – Berliner Ausgabe'

According to the Act of Establishment, a most important mission for the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation consists of the use and evaluation of the Willy Brandt Archive in the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s Archives of Social Democracy in Bonn (WBA). In keeping with this mission the Foundation launched an ambitious project in 1998: the Edition 'Willy Brandt – Berliner Ausgabe' (Berlin Edition), edited by the renowned Professors Helga Grebing, Gregor Schöllgen and Heinrich August Winkler. By 2009 all 10 planned volumes will have been completed (Publisher J.H.W. Dietz Nachf. in Bonn).

The Berlin Edition is intended first and foremost for a broad historically-politically interested public without forfeiting any claims to scholarly reliability. The edition is arranged according to chronological and thematic subjects. In the individual volumes the most diverse sources are brought together – among them Willy Brandt’s letters, notes, interviews, diary entries, manuscripts of speeches and memoranda. Each volume begins with an extensive and easily understandable introduction as introduction to the theme. The editor also presents a critical examination of the particular political achievement by Brandt being dealt with and places the edited sources into their overall historical context.

The Berlin Edition is therefore not conceived as a mere collection of documents. Rather it is intended to facilitate the reader’s access to the life and the politics of Willy Brandt as well as to significant segments of 20th-century history. At the same time it is supposed to be an encouragement to a critical assessment of the period of history most closely associated with the name Willy Brandt.

Hitherto unknown records from the Willy Brandt Archive and from a number of other archives at home and abroad are providing new insights and giving stimuli for continued historical research.

The ten main volumes will be complemented in upcoming years with publications in a „B-Series“ to the Berlin Edition, the Schriftenreihe 'Studien und Dokumente' (Series “Studies and Documents”). It will be devoted for the most part to special topics of Willy Brandt research.

As a completion of the Berlin Edition the Foundation in spring 2006 has launched a new publication series named "Willy-Brandt-Studien" which is also published at Dietz Publisher (Bonn).

The volumes of the Berlin Edition can be obtained through book dealers (27.60 Euros per volume). The publisher J.H.W. Dietz Nachf. also offers a favourable subscription price for the complete edition.

Berlin Edition – Edition Plan

Vol.	Title and Editor	will appear
1	Hitler is not Germany. Youth in Lübeck – Exile in Norway 1928-1940 Edited by Einhart Lorenz.	available
2	Two Fatherlands. German-Norwegians in Swedish Exile – Return to Germany 1940-1947 Edited by Einhart Lorenz.	available
3	Berlin Remains Free. Politics in and for Berlin 1947-1966 Edited by Siegfried Heimann.	available
4	The Way Forward. Willy Brandt and the SPD 1947-1972 Edited by Daniela Münkel.	available
5	The Party of Freedom. Willy Brandt and the SPD 1972-1992 Edited by Karsten Rudolph.	available
6	A Nation of Good Neighbours. Foreign and Domestic Policy 1966-1974 Edited by Frank Fischer.	available
7	Giving More Democracy a Chance. Interior and Societal Politics 1966-1974 Edited by Wolther von Kieseritzky.	available
8	Beyond Europe. Third World and Socialist International Edited by Bernd Rother and Wolfgang Schmidt.	available
9	Making Détente indestructible. International Relations and the German Question 1974-1982 Edited by Frank Fischer.	available
10	Mutual Security. International Relations and the German Question 1982-1992 Edited by Uwe Mai, Bernd Rother and Wolfgang Schmidt	available

(Note: The titles of the volumes were translated into English. The Berlin Edition is available in German only.)