Willy Brandt, Bruno Kreisky and the Near East
Petra Ramsauer in conversation with Wolfgang Petritsch, Kristina Meyer and Tobias Lang
Willy Brandt, Bruno Kreisky and the Near East
Since their time as opponents and persecutees of National Socialism in exile in Stockholm in the 1940s, Willy Brandt and Bruno Kreisky had a lifelong private and political friendship. One of the central themes of their close collaboration - whether as Chancellor, as party leaders or in the Socialist International - was Middle East policy, which was characterised by numerous armed conflicts in the „long“ 1970s. Despite joint initiatives to pacify the Middle East conflict, including the controversial meeting with PLO leader Yasser Arafat in Vienna in July 1979, Brandt and Kreisky differed in their perspectives and political styles in dealing with this highly complex issue.
In two short keynote speeches, historian Kristina Meyer and political scientist Tobias Lang will shed light on the two statesmen's policies towards Israel and the Middle East, followed by a discussion with retired ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch and journalist Petra Ramsauer on the legacy and contemporary relevance of Brandt and Kreisky's political collaboration.
Kristina Meyer is a research associate at the Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation in Berlin. She researches the history of dealing with the Nazi past, the history of social democracy and the history of German-Israeli relations. She was awarded the Willy Brandt Prize for Contemporary History in 2015 for her book „Die SPD und die NS-Vergangenheit 1945-1990“. She is currently working on a research project on the triangular relationship between Willy Brandt, Bruno Kreisky and Olof Palme with a special focus on their Middle East policy. Kristina Meyer has also been spokesperson for the SPD History Forum since 2019.
Tobias Lang is Director of the Austrian Centre for Peace (APC) in Schlaining/Burgenland. He studied political science in Vienna. As a member of staff in several government offices and club director in the Burgenland state parliament, he gained organisational and management experience at the interface between politics and administration.
His research focusses on religious minorities in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. His research also focuses on Austria's foreign policy in the Middle East. He is currently working on his dissertation on Bruno Kreisky's Middle East policy.
Wolfgang Petrisch, Ambassador (retired), is President of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip). During his diplomatic career, he has held positions at the United Nations in New York, Ambassador in Belgrade and at the OECD, High Representative of the EU in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ambassador to the UN in Geneva.
From 1977 to 1983, secretary and press spokesman for Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, about whom he published a biography in 2010 and another book in 2019.
Petra Ramsauer studied political science in Vienna, specialising in the Middle East, and journalism in Paris. Since 1989, she has worked as an editor and crisis and war correspondent for various Austrian and international media. She has received several awards for her work, including the Concordia Prize for Human Rights for her work on migration in Libya. She has reported regularly from Israel and the Palestinian territories, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Libya and the Sahel states. She has published eight books; most recently, in autumn 2024, the bestseller "Nahost Verstehen" (edition a). Since 2025, she has also been working as a psychotherapist (i.A.u.S) specialising in trauma and conflict/refuge in private practice.