In 1974, the then chancellor, Willy Brandt, resigned after a Stasi spy was found to be working in his office.

ECONOMIST: Erich Mielke

Mr Schmidt, after all, lost power not least because he was constantly at odds with his party and its chairman, Willy Brandt.

ECONOMIST: Gerhard Schr?der, serious in anticipation

There is, after all, something of a German precedent: the centre-left alliance under Willy Brandt which displaced a grand coalition in 1969.

ECONOMIST: Germany

Willy Brandt International Airport, south of the German capital, was originally due to go into service in June 2012 but has been plagued with problems.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Pulling for Willy Brandt and Helmut Kohl was fine.

WSJ: Euro 2012: It's OK to Root for Germany

Willy Brandt International Airport, named for Germany's famed Cold War leader, was supposed to have been up and running in late 2011, a sign of Berlin's transformation from Cold War confrontation line to world class capital of Europe's economic powerhouse.

NPR: Berlin's Airport Project Delays Shame Germans

There would certainly be rows within the party, which some people reckon could be as fierce as those that rent it in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the pragmatic Helmut Schmidt was chancellor and the visionary Willy Brandt was chairman, even though much of the feuding then was over foreign and defence matters.

ECONOMIST: Lumbering to the finishing-post