As so often, a dialog about the weather opens the conversation.
Thank you for the welcoming and for bringing good weather.
-No problem. -Thank you.
A turning point for those with good intentions.
They are watched with mistrust and suspicion
by those who think time has stood still with them.
For press photographers, a chance to take a picture
that will circulate the world.
The crowd that breaks through to see Willy Brandt
is not an army of revolutionaries and traitors of the state.
It is more that the name Willy Brandt
comes with the hope for a better co-operation in Germany.
Willy Brandt to the window!
The GDR places a set of demands
on the conference table at Erfurter Hof,
which can only be understood as maximal initial positions
if the dialog is to have a future.
"It will be a long, long road", Brandt concluded after the meeting.
What do citizens in Erfurt and Weimar think of this?
-What do you expect of Brandt's meeting with Stoph?
- Nothing.
I think that not much will come out of this first meeting.
But it is good that the two statesmen sit down together.
Well, that the German Democratic Republic is recognized.
I think it's not useful.
It's useful for the people to see
what the opinions of the two parties are, but...
I don't see any success and I don't expect anything.
Well, I would say...
it would be very nice if once a unity could be reached.
Not much. I don't think much will come out of it.
But I think interpersonal relationships should be made easier.
What do you mean by that?
Well, it's been said often enough. So don't ask me ...
What concessions should both sides make?
- Look, there are too many people here. -Thank you.
The people's sympathies accompany Willy Brandt to Buchenwald.
History allows the Chancellor to commemorate the victims
of the concentration camp with his head held high.
This moment becomes a deeply human experience,
despite the ceremony with military honours.
When Willi Stoph and Willy Brandt return to the station after 13 hours,
everything that needed to be said today had been said.
The result:
A reunion on 21 May in Kassel.