The deputy director of the International department of the German social democratic party from 1970 to 1997, Veronika Isenberg was, throughout the years on which this special issue focuses, a key player in the social democratic networks and in the Spd party diplomacy. In this interview of June 2019, she off ers a unique personal perspective on the international activities of the party in the years of Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt, as well as a refl ection on the current condition of European social democracy and of political internationalism.