Willy Brandt

Brandt's 1969 coalition between the Social Democrats and the much smaller Free Democrats had a majority of about a dozen seats and lost several members to defections over his eastern policy. He survived a constructive no-confidence vote in 1972 by two votes and then won a larger majority at the election that followed. The partnership with Walter Scheel's FDP delivered Ostpolitik, the treaties with Poland and the Soviet Union, and lowered the voting age to 18.