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Richard von Weizsäcker on the Meaning of Unification (October 3, 1990)

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Over the last forty years, fate divided us in the middle of our European neighborhood. It favored the one and burdened the other. But it was and remains our common German fate. History and a responsibility for its consequences is part to this, too. The SED had tried to decree division. It was of the opinion that proclaiming itself as a socialist society for the future was enough to free itself from the burden of history.

But in the GDR, people experienced and perceived this very differently. The war took a much heavier toll on them than on their compatriots in the West. And they always felt that remembering the past in responsible manner was an essential source of strength for liberation in the future. The forced official language had barely vanished when they began openly engaging with the questions of history. With great respect, the world registered the sincerity with which the free forces and above all the youth of the GDR saw it as their task to make up for the refusal of the old regime to acknowledge a shared historical responsibility. When the presidents of both freely elected German parliaments visited Israel a few months ago to commemorate the Holocaust, it made a deep impression there. It symbolized the unity of the Germans in their historical responsibility. National Socialist tyranny and the war that resulted from it inflicted immeasurable injustice and suffering upon peoples throughout almost all of Europe and here at home as well. We will always remain mindful of the victims. And we are grateful for the growing signs of reconciliation between peoples and nations.

The hope for freedom and for overcoming the division of Europe, Germany, and above all Berlin was never lost in the postwar period. And yet no one possessed the strength of imagination to foresee the course of events. So we experience this day as recipients of a gift. History has been kind to us Germans this time. So we have all the more reason for conscientious self-reflection. [ . . . ]

The form of unity has been found. Now it must be filled with substance and life. Parliaments, governments, and parties must help with this. But unity can be carried out only by the sovereign people, in the hearts and minds of the people themselves. Each of us senses how much remains to be done. It would be neither sincere nor helpful at this hour to conceal how much continues to separate us from each other.

The external coercion of division did not achieve its goal of alienating us. As inhumane as the Wall and the barbed wire were, they simply deepened our resolve to come together. We felt this most strongly in Berlin, this city of such central importance in the past and for the future. Seeing and feeling the Wall every day made us continue to believe in, and hope for, the other side. Now the Wall is gone; that is the most important thing. But now that we have freedom, we have to learn to live with it. We recognize more clearly than before the consequences of our different paths of development. The first to come to mind is the material gap. Even though the people of the GDR were confronted with an economy of shortages every day, made the best of it, and worked hard, the full extent of the problem – and thus the distance from the West – has become completely clear only in recent months. If we are to succeed in overcoming this gap quickly, we not only need mutual assistance, but above all mutual respect.

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