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Warsaw, December 7, 1970.
Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt lays a wreath at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
He adjusts the black, red and gold ribbon, takes four steps back and suddenly falls to his knees.
He remains like this for about half a minute, then stands up again with a jerk, his face almost motionless, his expression fixed, his gaze fixed far into the distance.
An image that goes around the world.
An image that makes history.
The genuflection became the most important symbol of Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik, with which he wanted to reshape the global order, for his fight for humanity and reconciliation.
When he became West German Chancellor in 1969, he dared to break a spectacular taboo in the middle of the Cold War.
He shook hands with the communist governments in the Eastern Bloc.
In doing so, he polarized the world public like hardly any other politician in German post-war history.
December 7, 2010 marks the fortieth anniversary of the world-historic fall on its knees in Warsaw.
To mark the occasion, BROADVIEW TV has been commissioned by MDR and ARTE to produce a 90-minute HDTV docudrama that takes a precise and moving look "behind the scenes" of Brandt's Ostpolitik and shows the background to it.
The two award-winning authors Sebastian Dehnhardt and Manfred Oldenburg focus on Willy Brandt's personality and his fight for reconciliation and a more peaceful world - against external and internal resistance.
The story covers the period of his chancellorship from 1969 to 1974.
Interviews with Brandt's closest confidants, political friends and opponents provide an unbiased view of his Ostpolitik.
First broadcast: Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 8:15 p.m., ARTE.
