German translation by Micheal Raab

"Under capitalism, man is oppressed by man. Under communism, it is the other way round."

It’s 1969 in the West German capital, Bonn. After 20 years of CDU rule, the Federal Republic of Germany gets its very first Social Democrat chancellor: Willy Brandt. Berlin’s former mayor vows to "dare more democracy" and works to change policy towards East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union. For his efforts Brandt, who survived the Nazi years in Scandinavian exile, is attacked as an appeaser and a traitor by West German conservatives. Five years later, the Chancellor’s personal assistant Günter Guillaume is revealed to be a spy for East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi. Willy Brandt is forced to step down.
 
British author Michael Frayn turns the Brandt-Guillaume affair into a tightly woven and painstakingly researched piece of theatre. At the Deutsches Theater, directors Tom Kühnel and Jürgen Kuttner grappled with elite aesthetics and Communist utopia in Peter Hacks’ 'Anxieties and Power', as well as Ayn Rand’s heroic, antisocial individual in 'Capitalista, Baby!'. Now they turn their attention to the years in which West Germany became a modern-style democracy – while the East looked on.