“A hundred years ago, when Richard Strauss, who has already been quoted and already been heard today, and other creative people, laid the foundation stone for the joint assertion of their rights and interests, they had pioneering work ahead of them in Germany.” PeopleYearsTodayInterestCreativeRightsHeardHundredYears AgoStonesFoundationGermanyJointsAssertionCreative PeoplePioneering Author:Johannes Rau
“History has often showed us the strength of the forces that are unleashed by the yearning for freedom. It moved people to overcome their fears and openly confront dictators such as in East Germany and Eastern Europe about 22 years ago... The yearning for freedom cannot be contained by walls for long. It was this yearning that brought down the Iron Curtain that divided Germany and Europe, and indeed the world, into two blocs.” PeopleWorldYearsLongTwoForceWallEuropeYears AgoOvercomingMovedEastGermanyIronDividedYearningDictatorEasternCurtainsUnleashedEastern EuropeEast GermanyIron Curtain Author:Angela Merkel
“I am not a man who believes that we Germans bled and conquered thirty years ago [to be] pushed aside when great international decisions are made. If that were to happen, the place of Germany as a world power would be gone for ever. I am not prepared to let that happen.” IfsMenWorldYearsBelieveMadeHappensWould BeDecisionGoneYears AgoPreparedInternationalThirtyGermanyThirty YearsWorld Power Author:Wilhelm II
“When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said - and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded - 'It's like hair color. It's nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It's not a subject.' This was a very healthy attitude.” PeopleYearsChildrenSaidMotherDarkAttitudeSubjectsColorHairHealthyYears AgoGermanyHomosexualityOpen MindedDark Hair Author:Karl Lagerfeld
“If the blood of France and of Germany flows again, as it did twenty-five years ago, in a longer and even more murderous war, each of the two peoples will fight with confidence in its own victory, but the most certain victors will be the forces of destruction and barbarism.” IfsYearsTwoWarCertainFightingForceFiveBloodMilitaryVictoryYears AgoFlowDestructionTwentiesFranceGermanyFive YearsTwenty FiveBarbarism Author:Edouard Daladier