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Mentoring in Political Life: The Case of Willy Brandt*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Barbara Kellerman
Barbara Kellerman*
Affiliation:
Tufts University
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Abstract

Mentoring relationships have a qualitative impact on the transition from early to middle adulthood, as well as on adult life itself. This paper proposes that the exploration of the role of mentors in the lives of political leaders will produce suggestive results. The study is a case history which examines the mentor in the early and later life of the adult male, here Willy Brandt. Brandt had two mentors: Julius Leber and Ernst Reuter. Reuter is briefly discussed but we focus here on the first of these, Leber, a prominent Social Democrat during the Weimar era and a legendary member of the German resistance. The essay describes the origins, nature and termination of the Brandt-Leber relationship. The influence of the mentor on the mentee transcended the period of their actual interaction and, as the paper procedes to demonstrate, the intensity of the relationship ensured that Brandt's self-image as Leber's heir continued to affect both professional and ideological choices.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , June 1978 , pp. 422 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1978

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Footnotes

*

My thanks are to Daniel Levinson.

References

1 Lloyd de Mause has emerged as a new catalyst in this area. See his edited work, The History of Childhood (New York: Basic Books, 1974)Google Scholar. He also serves as editor of History of Childhood Quarterly. (Vol. 1, No. 1 appeared in Summer, 1973Google Scholar).

2 See for example, Brim, Orville Jr., and Wheeler, Stanton, Socialization After Childhood: Two Essays (New York: Wiley, 1966)Google Scholar.

3 Erikson, Erik, Childhood and Society, 2nd ed., rev. and enl. (New York: Norton, 1963), pp. 247–74Google Scholar.

4 Two major researchers in this area are psychologist Daniel J. Levinson at Yale and psychiatrist Roger Gould of U.C.L.A. Gail Sheehy's enormous popular success with Passages confirms that adult development is a subject whose time has come.

5 Daniel J. Levinson, Charlotte M. Darrow, Edward B. Klein, Maria H. Levinson, and Braxton McKee, Toward a Conception of Adult Development. My page numbers refer to an unpublished manuscript which Professor Levinson was kind enough to provide. Despite multiple authorship, this work will be referred to in the text as “Levinson.” A revised version of the manuscript with Levinson as primary author will be published by Alfred Knopf in 1978 under the title, The Seasons of a Man's Life. Early in his research, Levinson felt certain that the psychosocial development of men differed from that of women, and that each sex would require a separate study. He very specifically, therefore, confined his own investigation to men. (The original impetus was his own experience.)

6 Levinson, Daniel J., Darrow, Charlotte M., Klein, Edward B., Levinson, Maria H., and McKee, Braxton, “The Psychosocial Development of Men in Early Adulthood and the Mid-Life Transition,” in Ricks, D. F., Thomas, A. and Roff, M., eds., Life History Research in Psychopathology (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1974), pp. 3, 4Google Scholar of manuscript. Despite multiple authorship, this work will be referred to in the text as “Levinson.”

7 Levinson, et al., “Psychosocial Development,” pp. 14, 15Google Scholar of manuscript.

8 The private motives to public behavior theme is derived from Lasswell, Harold, Psychopathology and Politics, 2nd ed. (New York: Viking Press, 1960Google Scholar; originally published 1930).

9 Brandt, Willy, My Road to Berlin (New York: Doubleday, 1960)Google Scholar. The four biographies are: Binder, David, The Other German: Willy Brandt's Life and Times (Washington: New Republic, 1975)Google Scholar; Drath, Viola Herms, Willy Brandt: Prisoner of his Fast (Radnor, Pa.: Chilton, 1975)Google Scholar; Prittie, Terence, Willy Brandt: Portrait of a Statesman (New York: Schocken, 1975)Google Scholar; Stern, Carola, Willy Brandt (Reinbeck: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1975)Google Scholar. Note: reference to page numbers in this essay are from Brandt, , My Road (London: Peter Davis, 1960)Google Scholar and Prittie, , Willy Brandt (Frankfurt: Goverts Krüger Stahlberg, 1973)Google Scholar.

10 See Erikson, Erik, “On the Nature of Psycho-Historical Evidence: In Search of Gandhi” in A Source Book for the Study of Personality and Politics, ed. Greenstein, Fred and Lerner, Michael (Chicago: Markham, 1971), p. 123Google Scholar.

11 Brandt, , My Road, p. 19Google Scholar.

12 Brandt, , My Road, pp. 19–20Google Scholar.

13 Brandt's real grandmother had paid no attention to him. Brandt's grandfather remarried not long after her death but his new wife, whom Brandt called “aunt,” was not destined to become one of the boy's favorites.

14 Brandt, , My Road, p. 22Google Scholar.

15 The credit for this decision is given to Brandt's grandfather by the neighbor who took care of Brandt during his early childhood years. (See Prittie, p. 25.) Nowhere does Brandt himself mention that his grandfather rendered specific help with regard to his schooling. He notes instead, that the scholarship he received was “in recognition of good marks” (Brandt, , My Road, p. 24Google Scholar).

16 Brandt, , My Road, p. 31Google Scholar.

17 Anonymous description from a book compiling some writings, speeches, and letters of Leber, Julius: Ein Mann gent seinen Weg: Schriften, Reden, und Briefs von Julius Leber (Berlin: Mosaik Verlag, 1952), p. 271Google Scholar.

18 Brandt, , My Road, p. 29Google Scholar.

19 For example, through the intervention of Julius Leber, who had also named Brandt a “contributing editor” to the Volksboten, Brandt was admitted to the Social Democratic Party at 16. More ordinary persons had to be at least 18 to gain regular party status.

20 Brandt, , My Road, p. 32Google Scholar.

21 This quote and the shorter ones incorporated in this paragraph are from Levinson, et al., Toward a Conception, pp. 14, 15Google Scholar of Ch. 10 of unpublished manuscript.

22 Brandt, recalls: “We fought them [Hitler youth] with words and fists” (My Road, p. 32)Google Scholar.

23 For a thorough investigation of the SAP's legal history see Drechsler, Hanno, Die Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands (SAPD): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung am Ende der Weimarer Republik (Meisenheim am Glan: Verlag Anton Hein, 1965)Google Scholar.

24 Drechsler, p. 99.

25 Editorial evidence available in Volksboten of July 19, 1930; October 20, 1930; June 24, 1931; and October 16, 1931. Reprinted in Leber.

26 When Brandt participated in a 1931 incident in which protesters carried a banner proclaiming, “The Republic isn't much–Socialism is the goal,” his grandfather responded in dismay, “How could all of you be so ungrateful?” Brandt told this anecdote during an interview with Günther Gaus shown on German Channel 2 on September 25, 1964, and transcribed in Tatsachen-Argumente (SPD Publication), 104 Bonn, October, 1964, p. 4Google Scholar.

27 See, for example, Brandt, , My Road, p. 35Google Scholar.

28 Brandt, , My Road, p. 39Google Scholar.

29 Prittie, p. 29.

30 Brandt, , My Road, pp. 43, 44Google Scholar.

31 Appeared in Volksboten, October 22, 1932, and reprinted in Leber.

32 Volksboten, January 30, 1933, and reprinted in Leber.

33 Brandt, , My Road, pp. 46, 47Google Scholar.

34 Levinson, et al., “Psychosocial Development,” p. 16Google Scholar of manuscript. The ambivalence manifested at the time of termination never dissipates completely. Recently, Brandt professed to be “bored” talking about Leber and Reuter. (Drath, p. 350.)

35 Müssener, Helmut, Exil in Schweden: Politische und Kulturelle Emigration nach 1933 (München: Carl Hanser Verlag, 1974), p. 99Google Scholar.

36 Müssener, p. 128. Further comments on this subject by Brandt may be found in Brandt, Willy, In Exile: Essays, Reflections and Letters 1933–47 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971), p. 62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 The other two were Fritz Tarnow, a Social Democrat and close working colleague of Brandt's and Hans Schäffer, a former Staff Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

38 The request concerned Brandt's willingness to serve in a new (post-Hitler) German government.

39 Brandt, , My Road, pp. 129–36Google Scholar.

40 The publication of Misslyckad revolt caused a small scandal and legal difficulties about sources. See Mussner, pp. 252–53.

41 In Leber, p. 272.

42 Brandt, , My Road, p. 30Google Scholar.

43 Willy Brandt, from a conversation with Chalfont, Lord for the BBC television documentary, “A Man Called Willy Brandt.” The show was transmitted on BBC-1, and was filmed in Bonn on September 23–24, 1970; p. 17Google Scholar of transcript.

44 Brandt's dedication to Social Democracy has not flagged. For example, no prominent socialist has played a greater role than he in rendering party (SPD) support and financial aid to the Portuguese Socialists during their recent crises. See, New York Times, August 29, 1975 and September 6, 1975.

45 Brandt, , My Road, p. 163Google Scholar.

46 Brandt, , My Road, p. 163Google Scholar.

47 Brandt, , My Road, p. 167Google Scholar.

48 Levinson, et al., “Psychosocial Development,” p. 14Google Scholar of manuscript.

49 Levinson, et al., “Psychosocial Development,” p. 15Google Scholar.

50 Levinson, et al., Toward a Conception, Ch. 12, p. 14Google Scholar of manuscript.

51 Brandt, Willy and Löwenthal, Richard, Ernst Reuter: Ein Leben für die Freiheit: Eine Politische Biographie (München: Kindler, 1957)Google Scholar. Perhaps it should also be noted here that Brandt did some literary collaborating with Annedore Leber.

52 Levinson, et al., “Psychosocial Development,” p. 17Google Scholar of manuscript.

53 Jacob Walcher and Martin Tranmael are two notable examples. Walcher, a prominent SAP leader, took Brandt under his wing and played a substantial role in promoting his party career (1933–39). Tranmael, “grand old man of Norwegian Socialism,” also took a special liking to Brandt. This connection scarcely hurt Brandt during his Scandinavian exile.

54 For example, together with Szende, Stefan, August and Enderle, Irmgard and Behm, Ernst, he published the thoughtful Zur Nachkriegspolitik der deutschen Sozialisten (Stockholm: AB Arbetarnes Tryckeri, 1944)Google Scholar.

55 On this see Kellerman, Barbara L., “Willy Brandt: Portrait of the Leader as Young Politician” (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1975), pp. 281–95Google Scholar.

56 We might hypothesize about the differences among men–here political leaders–who grew into adulthood with the benefit of mentors, those who lacked mentors, and even those whose mentors explicitly denied them the “blessing.” In this third category, the famous example of Lenin's last testament warning against Stalin springs to mind.

57 Erikson, , Childhood and Society, pp. 266–68Google Scholar.

58 The popular press has joined the ranks of the investigators. See Sheehy's, Gail cover story in New York 5, April, 1976Google Scholar.

59 Consider also the most striking example of political mentoring in our current public life: the relationship between Hubert Humphrey and “Fritz” Mondale.

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