Rut Brandt (10 January 1920 – 28 July 2006) was a Norwegian-born German writer and the wife of the German chancellor

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

between 1948 and 1980, including most of his political career as

Governing Mayor of Berlin The governing mayor () of Berlin is the head of government, presiding over the Berlin Senate. As Berlin is an independent city as well as one of the constituent states of Germany (), the office is the equivalent of the ministers president of ...

(1957–1966) and German chancellor (1969–1974). Rut Brandt became highly popular in Germany and a noted public figure in her role as First Lady of Berlin and the chancellor's spouse."Rut Brandt – Ehre für eine, die mehr als First Lady war"
''

Berliner Kurier The ''Berliner Kurier'' is a regional, daily tabloid published by the ''Berliner Verlag GmbH'' for the Berlin metropolitan area in Germany. The paper was owned by M. DuMont Schauberg. and got sold in September 2019 to Holger Friedrichs. In Ja ...

'', 4 December 2001

Life

Born Rut Hansen in

Hamar Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, she worked initially in a bakery in Norway and then as a tailor's apprentice. At age 16, she joined a socialist youth group, which conducted political activities against the German occupation during the Second World War. In 1942, she fled to Sweden with one of her sisters. In Sweden, she married her Norwegian friend, Ole Olstadt Bergaust, who died in 1946. In 1944, Hansen met

, the later German Chancellor, who had fled Germany. After Bergaust's death, Brandt and Hansen married in 1948. When Willy Brandt became chancellor in 1969, Rut Brandt was at his side as a very successful and popular First Lady. However, when she discovered in 1979 that Brandt had an affair with (later his third wife), Rut Brandt filed for divorce. After the divorce was granted in 1980, Rut and Willy Brandt went their separate ways and never saw each other again. When Brandt died in 1992, Brigitte Seebacher-Brandt did not allow Rut to attend the funeral – a decision which was highly criticised by many Germans. Rut Brandt died on 28 July 2006 in Berlin, aged 86, from undisclosed causes.

Family

Willy and Rut Brandt had three sons: * (born 1948), historian * (born 1951), writer, filmmaker, artist * Matthias Brandt (born 1961), actor

Books by Rut Brandt

* ' (1992) * ' (2001)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt, Rut 1920 births 2006 deaths People from Hamar Norwegian resistance members Female resistance members of World War II Norwegian emigrants to Germany German autobiographers Women autobiographers Norwegian writers Spouses of chancellors of Germany Burials at the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf