Oslo

In Oslo after October 1933 Willy Brandt is the leader not only of the external branch of the Socialist's Workers Party (SAP) but also of the external central branch of the Socialist Youth Union of Germany (SJV). He organizes get-togethers of SJV members living in exile and he produces informational and educational material, which is made available via secret couriers to the underground cells of the SAP and its Youth Union in Germany. In February 1934 Brandt takes part, as the representative of the SJV in an international conference of left-wing socialist youth organizations in Laaren (Netherlands). Police who arrest foreign delegates under the pretext of passport control break up the meeting. Brandt barely escapes the fate of the other German delegates who are handed over to German authorities at the border. Finally Willy Brandt dares to enter the "lion's den". From September to December 1936 he remains illegally in Berlin in the guise of a Norwegian student by the name of Gunnar Gaasland. He has the assignment from the Party to lead the Berlin SAP underground organization "Metro". Brandt wants in addition to gain an impression of everyday life in National Socialist Germany. He remains unrecognized and returns safely to Oslo.

Since 1936 there is a civil war in Spain. The Communists and Fascists face each other in unrelieved enmity. In 1937 the SAP leadership sends Willy Brandt to Barcelona, where he is to prepare an international socialist youth conference. During his stay, he plans to report for the Norwegian workers' press on the civil war. Brandt stumbles ideologically between the fronts: as a SAP representative and hence a member of the left-socialist POUM He sees the latter as trying to pursue the war as a class war rather than proceeding in common against the Fascists. In spite of his balanced political position and the reports that he makes concerning the Spanish civil war, Brandt will later be slandered as having worked together with the Communists and having participated in their battles. Brandt is able to rebut these accusations, with the assistance of witnesses who testify about his stay in Spain.
 
In 1938 in common with many thousands of other emigrants Brandt is deprived of his citizenship by the National Socialists.
 
He learns of his denationalization through an announcement in the Reichsanzeiger of September 5, 1938.Willy Brandt becomes stateless. He determines to apply for naturalization in Norway.