In the Shadow of Power

Spring 1974. Chancellor Willy Brandt is on a campaign tour through northern Germany aboard a special train. The chancellor is accompanied by journalists, his bodyguards, and his party aide Günter Guillaume, who maintains contact with the government headquarters during such trips. Guillaume is Brandt’s “jack-of-all-trades.” Yet for nearly a year, he has been under suspicion of being a Stasi agent, and the chancellor knows it. Brandt has followed the advice of Nollau, the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and Genscher, the minister of the interior responsible for political affairs, to make no changes to the suspect’s responsibilities and to play the part of the unsuspecting party until sufficient evidence has been gathered.

The chancellor is now aware of the “web of vivid imagination and half-truths” that is closing in on him. His moods fluctuate. Dark forebodings, depression, and even suicidal thoughts alternate abruptly with confidence and a fighting spirit. Can he go on the offensive with a cabinet reshuffle? Genscher will not step down voluntarily, and Brandt cannot force him to do so, as that would jeopardize the governing coalition with the FDP. As Vice Chancellor and FDP chairman, Genscher is the designated successor to Walter Scheel, who is determined to have himself elected Federal President in just a few weeks.