Thanks for the clarification appreciate it. I always thought of Merkel since she came East Germany the GDR— that she had to carry her socialism with her. Will take another look at this and Adenauer and Kohl. So they are center-right Socialists. Yeah looking at the current real Left Germans— definitely can’t take them.
Hearkening back to Bismarck and his giveaways to the Socialists to keep them at bay- when in time they became dominant and of course the monarchy dissolved in WWI. What a screwed up country. It was of course determined that Willy Brandt was a Soviet/GDR agent in place== and was that before Germany joined NATO- can’t recall.
Not socialists, but center-right.
The welfare state policies everyone supports - no kidding, there is O public support for what in the US are “conservative” policies, not even by the AfD, were brought in by the Bismark, as you say, not a leftist by any means, back in the 19th century. And now that is baked in.
Modern US political categories simply dont fit. You have to put your brain on a different track when dealing outside the US.
Pretty much all of Europe is a “screwed up country”, by those standards. Everyone, in the end, copied Bismarck.
And most of Asia, even the good bits.
As I said, you have to take them all as they are.
Brandt’s top aide Günter Guillaume was a top Soviet agent.
There were rumors that Brandt was KGB. Also rumors that he was CIA. He may have been working both sides of the street. His actions could have been tactical and coordinated with German intelligence. Or the rumors may have been wrong. LaRoucheites were spreading them.