modern governmental program

Willy Brandt is chosen as the SPD candidate for Federal Chancellor at a Party convention in Hannover in November 1960. Brandt announces that if victorious in the Federal elections in 1961 he will institute a "modern governmental program". As conceived by the candidate for Chancellor, emphasis is to be placed on the construction of facilities for research, education, and health services as well as modernization of the transportation network. Willy Brandt is the first politician who introduces environmental themes into the election campaign. A slogan of the SPD in 1961 is "the sky over the Ruhr must turn blue again."

Willy Brandt conducts an election campaign according to the American model. He travels throughout the Federal Republic in a Mercedes convertible and talks to and with the citizens in hundreds of localities.

In the Federal elections of 1961 - as again in 1965 - Willy Brandt is the target of slander and dirty politics. His political opponents attempt to degrade and insult the SPD candidate through allusions to alleged personal and political misdeeds. Brandt, however, is able to defend himself through successful juridical proceedings.

In the Federal elections of 1961 the SPD gains 36.2 percent of the ballots cast - its best achievement in the history of the Federal Republic. However, the hoped-for change in power still eludes it. The CDU/CSU and the FDP create a coalition government under Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

After the death of Erich Ollenhauer , the extraordinary Party convention in Bad Godesberg in 1964 elects Willy Brandt Party Chairman. In 1965 he once again enters the Federal election campaign as the candidate for Chancellor of the SPD. His political opponent is the former Minister of Economics and the "father of the Wirtschaftswunder (German economic miracle)", Ludwig Erhard, who replaced Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor in 1963. The SPD gains 39.3 percent of the ballots cast, but the CDU/CSU and the FDP again achieve a majority in the Bundestag (Upper House of the Federal Parliament). Ludwig Erhard continues as Chancellor.

Willy Brandt is deeply disappointed by this election result. He considers whether he should make himself available once more as SPD candidate for the top office. However, in 1966 the Party congress in Dortmund strengthens Brandt's posture and confirms him almost unanimously - by 324 to 326 votes - as Party Chairman.