Egon Bahr, an eminent German Social Democrat who with late Chancellor Willy Brandt forged a policy of rapprochement with Communist Eastern Europe known as “Ostpolitik” during the Cold War, has died at the age of 93, the party said on Thursday.
A towering figure on Germany’s political left, Bahr was closely involved as Brandt’s emissary in negotiations on 1970s treaties that fostered detente with Moscow and Warsaw.
He also helped engineer a pioneering Basic Treaty to ease tensions between then-West Germany and Communist East Germany.
“Many people in Germany and Europe are mourning this courageous, upright and great Social Democrat, the architect of …read more
Source: Voice of America
