Wilke It's never happened before! In every town and village along the line — people with their hands outstretched towards him, people waving tablecloths and bedsheets. Armed police everywhere with orders to stop any demonstrations, but there's nothing they can do.

Kretschmann This is why we need to make up our minds about Willy so urgently. Because we can't hold the lid on all this much longer.

Wilke He gets to Erfurt for the summit meeting and they break through the police lines outside his hotel.

Kretschmann It's terrifying, Günter.

Wilke 'Willy! Willy!' they shout. 'Come to the window!'

Kretschmann There's only one person who can control them.

Wilke 'Willy! Willy!' they chant. 'The window!' He comes to the window . . .

Kretschmann He looks down on all those upturned faces.

Wilke What can he say that won't pour petrol onto the flames?

Brandt gestures.

Wilke Silence. One of the greatest speeches of his career. Not a word. Just that one little gesture. That one characteristic little gesture.

Ehmke I've seen him make it in Cabinet.

Wilke 'Calm down, calm down.'

Ehmke Willy the peacemaker.

Wilke A silent speech to a non-existent nation - and each person in the crowd feels he's being spoken to like a human being. Spoken to personally. One small gesture.

Ehmke 'Easy now! Easy does it!'

Wilke But everyone understands another meaning altogether.

Ehmke 'Patience, patience. The time will come.'

Kretschmann We're taking a huge risk here. Every word and gesture of Willy's raises the stakes. Every word and gesture of ours raises them again. He's going to sign treaties with Moscow, with Warsaw, with us. But can he get them through the Bundestag?

Guillaume Majority of twelve.

Kretschmann Twelve, yes. But only if the coalition holds together. It's all very well for Willy to cobble a government together by making a coalition with the Liberals, but how does he keep them in it?

Wehner (with Brandt, Ehmke and Guillaume) Only thirty of them in the House to start with - and half of them don't want the Eastern treaties at any price.

Kretschmann - This is the man who's got to make the coalition work?

Guillaume - Herbert Wehner. Willy's party leader in the Bundestag.

Wehner Three of them definitely going over. According to my private information. Three of them who find even desertion to the Christian Democrats preferable to the Eastern treaties.

Kretschmann - Three of them going? Only take another three and the treaties are dead in the water. The whole Eastern Policy will have vanished like the morning mist.

Wehner My sources tell me there's three more tender souls examining their consciences. Or the size of the offers they've had.

Kretschmann - You're there? In the room with them?

Guillaume - They've stopped noticing me.

Kretschmann - So what does Willy say?