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Speech Given by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder We have the peoples of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that are currently in the process of economic transition to thank for the fact that this evolution was possible. Our appreciation goes to the former Soviet leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev for not having opposed our people's wish for freedom. And in fact for having done quite the contrary: Gorbachev's reform policies contributed to this development. We are also particularly indebted to our western neighbors and allies. Germany was able to regain its full sovereignty as a united nation only as a result of the fact that the Federal Republic was firmly anchored in the European-Atlantic alliance and had the support of its partners. I believe however that the third of October should be first and foremost a day of giving thanks to the Germans. To the Germans in the former GDR for their courage and the strength of their convictions - with which they brought down the Wall and a dictatorial system. To the Germans in what was the "west" for their willingness to help and their solidarity with what were back then Germany's still very "new" states. And to the Germans - that is to say, the people living in present-day Germany - for their commitment to creating a successful future for our body politic and a peaceful identity for our nation. Remembering what we share in common includes being aware of the historical facts. For this reason, it cannot be said often enough: the Wall was toppled from the east and not the west. Long before the ninth of November, an ever-growing mass movement took shape in the former GDR, a mass movement whose call for democracy and justice became so loud it could not be ignored. German unification was not primarily a diplomatic feat - although it doubtless was that as well. Geared to peace and freedom, the course of developments in the former "Bonn republic" fed and inspired the wish for freedom among the people in eastern Germany. However these two factors first had to come together to enable the conditions under which a freely elected People's Chamber and a freely elected Bundestag could vote for German unity in free self-determination. Today, Germany's national unity is a matter of course. All we presently have left are fragments to remind us of the Berlin Wall which was rightly described as "Europe's ugliest structure." These fragments are reminders to future generations that rulers may have built walls, but people have brought them down. Today, the border between the states of Hessen and Thuringia is as indiscernible as the border between Hessen and Lower Saxony. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true of the economic and social borders in our country or of what we call "internal unity." The reconstruction process in our new states is by no means finished and we are nowhere near to culminating our internal unity. This is not the place to put numbers on the enormous reconstruction efforts or the considerable progress that has been made to date. It may however be enough to mention in this connection that more than half a million people have taken the plunge and started up their own business and created a corresponding number of new jobs. Although this doesn't change the still dramatically high level of unemployment in Germany's new states, it does show that we can rely on the efforts and resourcefulness of our people. Much has been accomplished. Nonetheless, we will not be able to do without solidarity or assistance for our efforts to rebuild the economy in eastern Germany in the future either. And by "future" I mean after the year 2004 when the present solidarity pact expires. One thing is for sure: The pressure to consolidate government finances so that we can leave a body politic to our children that is capable of acting and is worth living in applies to all areas. In light of this, a number of concessions will also have to be made in the eastern part of the country - first and foremost to ensure more pinpointed deployment of funding measures. Despite this, funding levels will remain markedly higher than they were in the past. We should take good heed of this for our forward planning as well: what we actually need is a "Solidarity Pact II" - a solidarity pact that would give even clearer priority to investments aimed at ensuring future development, particularly in education and science, than what is currently being propagated under the slogan "competitive federalism" and would actually put our eastern states in particular at a disadvantage. A prerequisite for the survival of our participatory society is that everyone take part in it, starting with their voting in elections and extending all the way to helping shape our economic future. We will be able to master the challenges arising from globalization and digitization only if people partake in our prosperity and take part in our decision-making processes. This also means, however, that we cannot win over people for our body politic unless there is equality of opportunity and social justice. For this reason, establishing social justice and solidarity between the various parts of our country and society will continue to be our main precept as we strengthen our body politic. It wasn't egoists who rebuilt our country, either after the second world war or after the third of October 1990. We know of course that part of the national debt that is putting constraints on us came about in connection with German unification. But it is for precisely this reason that it is now our duty to reduce our level of indebtedness. We will share out the burdens this entails fairly. We will do so without jeopardizing what has already been accomplished, but while putting the body politic above individual interests. We owe this to our children and to our children's children. The enormous cultural gains that unification with the Germany of Weimar and Wittenberg, of Potsdam and Eisenach brought the Federal Republic have been invoked time and again. Intellect, culture and language are the primary pillars of an identity that helps us to understand one another and helps us to "like being a German" without being arrogant about it. We should like being Germans, but we should like it without being overly emotional or wracked by self-doubt over it. The crimes of Auschwitz have been engraved on people's memories for all time. There can be no repressing this, no forgetting this, no making a clean break of any kind. Only those people who accept history will also have the chance of overcoming it. Only those people who come to terms with the bitter experience of nationalistic megalomania and dictatorship, as well as with 40 years of being a divided state can shape the Germans' future in Europe. Conscious of our past, committed to the future. Our neighbors are also much less concerned when they see us with such an attitude. The Germans' identity is based on values which represent us and our body politic. Values which we and our forefathers have fought and argued and, not infrequently, suffered for. And whose translation into reality in everyday life must be discussed and ensured in today's society - so that our children and our children's children will have them to take their bearings from. These values are the values of freedom, self-determination and solidarity. The future of these values is not in jeopardy. Where we will have to make an effort will be in making sure that these values are accepted in modern society in such a way that ensures they will survive in the future. Much has been written recently about those decisive months between October 1989 and October 1990. And I have also frequently read that Germany's unconditional commitment to European integration along with monetary union and its willingness to provide generous amounts of aid for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were in a manner of speaking the "price" we paid for German unification. I wouldn't agree with this. I see the deepening and enlargement of Europe as a rewarding task. And thus much more of a "reward" in the medium term than a "price to be paid" for everyone involved. On a day like today we can certainly be quite proud of the fact that united Germany is living up to its responsibilities in and for Europe. The decision to participate in the war in Kosovo and in safeguarding the peace there was not an easy one for anyone. And the risks entailed in deploying our soldiers have been brought painfully home to us in recent days. For this reason I would like to express special thanks to them here and now and to assure them of our support. We should be all the more conscious of the historical contribution united Germany is making toward peace and stability in Europe together with its European and American partners and also with Russia through its political and, when necessary, its military resolution to prevent crimes against humanity. But also first and foremost through the opening up of economic and political prospects for all of Europe. The events surrounding the Kosovo conflict make dramatically clear what has changed in Germany and Europe as a result of October 3, 1990. The objection has been raised by a thoroughly competent authority that October 3 is not suited to being the Germans' national day. The historian Arnulf Baring considers this day to be, and I quote, "meaningless, devoid of meaning, not worthy of being elevated." I would not, with all due respect, agree with this. Even though we Germans certainly do not have any shortages of national excess to make up for following the terrible abuse of emotions and national myths by two dictatorships, the empire and militarists, one thing is for certain: displays of emotion, including public displays of emotion, joy and pride are part and parcel of the life and identity of a nation that is at peace with itself and others. Although our joy over our regained unity cannot be limited to any particular date, October 3 does a good job in expressing this joy. This is joy not only over the fall of the Wall and the tearing down of the barbed wire, it is also joy over the end of the Iron Curtain in Europe. We knew more definitively on October 3, 1990 that Germany's future would lie only with and within a free Europe than we did during our jubilant delirium on the ninth of November 1989. October 3 encompasses the best of Germany's traditions of public spirit and aspiring to freedom: the tradition of the seventeenth of June 1953 and of West Germany's peace movement which conducted a much more intensive dialogue with civil rights advocates in East Germany than official politics did. And what is more,October 3 is the day on which that which was split asunder in Germany by the twentieth century was to come together for the first time in German history since 1848. Republican public spirit and the desire to achieve national unity in peace and self-determination have reconciled and merged with one another. It seems to me that this is a good day for remembering these things.
And an even better day for celebrating. |
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