Egon Bahr

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Egon Bahr
Federal Minister for Special Affairs of GermanyIn office
1972 – 1974 Minister for Economic CooperationIn office
1974 – 1976 Preceded by Erhard EpplerSucceeded by Marie Schlei Born March 18, 1922
TreffurtPolitical party SPD Occupation Journalist

Egon Karlheinz Bahr (born March 18, 1922) is a German former politician for the SPD.

Bahr was born in Treffurt, Province of Saxony.

The former journalist created the "Ostpolitik" of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for whom he served as Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office from 1969 until 1972. Between 1972 and 1990 he was an MP in the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany, and from 1972 until 1976 was also a Minister.

Bahr was a key figure in multiple negotiation sessions between not only East and West Germany, but also Germany and the Soviets. Bahr was instrumental in the Moscow Treaty, the quadripartite talks, German-German negotiations, the Transit Accord, the Traffic Treaty, the Basic Treaty, and had a major role in Ostplitik. He also negotiated the ratification of the Moscow and Warsaw Treaties.

As a politician, Bahr was motivated by a sense of maintaining "the national integrity" of Germany as a whole as much as possible. One problem with Bahr was known as the "Bahr paper". Bahr was in Moscow holding talks with Gromyko, and materials from these talks found there way, via an unknown leak, to the popular newspaper Bild, and on July 1, 1970, they appeared in 2 newspapers. This unauthorized publication became known as the "Bahr Paper".

Source: "Dealing with the Devil: East Germany, Detente, and Ostpolitik, 1969-1973". M.E. Sarotte, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London, 2001.

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