When I was preparing this policy statement, I thought long and hard about how I could mention and acknowledge all the groups who are so important for communal life in our country. I thought about whether I should mention individual employers' associations and unions, churches and religious communities by name. Eventually, I decided to forgo such a listing. Because it’s not about groups, it’s about all of us, our community, and our common future.
Therefore, let us surprise ourselves by not always tackling big issues by breaking them down into individual groups and interests, but rather by treating them as a whole! Let us surprise ourselves by tackling them rationally, fairly, and honestly, and by joining forces to find a solution. Amid all the tasks we face, we must not forget that previous generations had to solve immeasurably greater problems. We only have to think of the reconstruction efforts in East and West after the war, or of the historic achievement of the East Germans in toppling a dictatorship by peaceful means. In comparison, our situation today is enviable.
Of course, light and shadows are never far apart. We only need to look at the reconstruction of East Germany [Aufbau Ost]. But one thing remains certain: fifteen years after German unification, enormous progress has been made. Through annual transfer payments amounting to 4 percent of the national product, we have succeeded in rebuilding the new Länder. At this juncture, I would like to thank everyone in Germany who contributed to this process.
The environment is recovering, infrastructure is in place, in the coming days – as a resident of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, I am allowed to say this – the final stretch of the Baltic Sea motorway will be open to traffic. Those are only a few examples of everything we have accomplished in fifteen years.
Our country also has good prospects in other areas, and it is high time we made the most of them. Germany is the world's leading exporter. No country in Europe registers more patents. A German scientist has just been awarded a Nobel Prize.
Our cultural diversity is unique.
Germany is a country with ideas, to quote the federal president. A country with ideas needs a government willing to act, and this government plans to be very active.
A vice-chancellor of a previous grand coalition who subsequently became chancellor [i.e. Willy Brandt] once said, "Dare more democracy."
I know that this statement triggered considerable debate, some of it extremely heated. But he obviously struck a chord with people at that time. And speaking personally, I can say that it was music to the ears, particularly for people on the other side of the Wall. Allow me today to amend this statement and to sound the appeal, "Let us dare more freedom."
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