Khrushchev-ultimatum

Since the 1950s there has been a party policy dispute between the Land Chairman Franz Neumann on one side and Ernst Reuter and Willy Brandt on the other. The two wings of the party represent different policies on questions of central party policies as well as on issues relating to Berlin, Germany, and Europe. The views of Ernst Reuter and Willy Brandt finally prevail. In 1958 Willy Brandt is elected chairman of the Berlin SPD .

After the death of Ernst Reuter, Otto Suhr assumes the office of Governing Mayor of Berlin. Suhr dies in August 1957. On October 3, 1957 Willy Brandt is elected Governing Mayor.

As the Governing Mayor, Willy Brandt becomes one of the foremost political leaders of Germany. He takes office in a city that is the center of the East-West conflict and the goal of Soviet expansionism. In November 1958 the Soviet state and party leader Nikita Khrushchev challenges the American, British, and French protective forces to withdraw from West Berlin: the Western sectors of the city are to be "demilitarized" and transformed into a "free city".

Willy Brandt in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
© Bundesbildstelle

Khrushchev's ultimatum opens the second Berlin crisis, after the 1948-49 Berlin blockade, lasting until 1963. Willy Brandt emphatically rejects the Moscow ultimatum.

He personifies the unbroken will for freedom of the Berlin population, through his decisive resistance to Communist policies of repression. On numerous tours of countries of the free world, Willy Brandt, as Governing Mayor, represents his city and challenges responsible political leaders in the West to do all that is needed to preserve the freedom of West Berlin.

The overwhelming victory that Willy Brandt achieves in the December 1958 elections for the Berlin House of Delegates is an unambiguous endorsement of his Berlin policy.