abstract:Neue Ostpolitik (German for "new eastern policy"), or Ostpolitik for short, refers to the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) beginning in 1969. Influenced by Egon Bahr, who proposed "change through rapprochement" in a 1963 speech, the policies were implemented beginning with Willy Brandt, fourth Chancellor of the FRG from 1969 to 1974.
Italsopromises to be a handytoolforlanguageteachers: the authors have had to explainmany expressions that are hard totranslate, such as laiciteand Ostpolitik.
"For instance,when Willy Brandt got the prize back in the 1970s, he launched Ostpolitik in Europe which was so important in what happened many years later.
VOA: standard.2009.10.09
It was the Social Democrats, he recalls, who more or less invented Germany's Ostpolitik.