Brandt Bows Out as Opposition Party Leader in Bonn

Willy Brandt formally bowed out of the leadership of the opposition Social Democratic Party on Sunday, turning over the party chairmanship to Hans-Jochen Vogel, the party’s parliamentary floor leader and its unsuccessful candidate for chancellor in the 1983 elections.

Despite the criticism that led to Brandt’s resignation, he was honored by delegates at a special one-day party conference here by being named the first honorary party chairman in the 124-year history of Germany’s oldest political party. Brandt also retains his seat in Parliament and will continue to have a voice in party affairs.

“He may be giving up the helm, but he’s not giving up the ship,” party spokesman Eduard Heussen said of Brandt’s honorary appointment that will make him “a kind of special adviser.”

The 73-year-old former West German chancellor, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his policy of detente toward the Soviet Union, declared that he would “have prefered a different exit” as chairman, a post he held for 23 years.

This was an allusion to his forced resignation in March in a dispute over his appointment of a Greek woman national and non-party member as chief party spokesperson.

Resigned As Chancellor in 1974

Brandt would also have preferred a different exit in 1974 when he resigned as chancellor after the disclosure that an East German spy had been uncovered among his close aides.

Brandt had been expected to serve as chairman until next year, but he announced his resignation during the flap over naming the woman, Maria Mathiopoulos, a personal friend, which by then had broadened into criticism of his leadership of the party.

In his speech, Brandt urged the fragmented party to unify itself, declaring: “Our preoccupation with ourselves should not take up more of our time and strength than our differences with our opponents and the real issues.”

In last January’s election, the Social Democrats, led by Johannes Rau, premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, made their weakest showing in 25 years, polling only 37% of the vote.

Rau, a moderate, was named a deputy party chairman Sunday, as was left-winger Oscar Lafontaine, premier of the state of Saarland.

Vogel, 61, who also served as mayor of Munich and later of West Berlin, is a centrist who ran unsuccessfully for the chancellorship against Helmut Kohl of the conservative Christian Democratic Union in 1983.

Vogel faces the formidable task of rebuilding a party that has suffered local election defeats and which is losing younger voters to the radical, environmentalist Greens party. Social Democratic party leaders have differed about whether to form a coalition with the Greens in city, state, and national governments.

Political observers also foresee a future struggle between Vogel and Lafontaine over who will be the party’s candidate for chancellor in the next federal election.