Comment du Jour

Day of German Unity

3 October 1990-2013

A few thoughts on the Day of German Unity would be incomplete without mentioning HOW it happened.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, a piece of which stands in the UN gardens in New York, was instrumental in bringing the unity of the former "German Democratic Republic" LOL, East Germany, with the truly democratic Federal Republic in the West.  

One must thank the largely Lutheran church demonstrations in the East during the Autumn of 1989, the unwavering  freedom agenda of Chancellor Kohl  and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and even Russian leader Gorbachev for "blinking."   The rest is history, as they say.

The united German state is about freedom.  Last year Foreign Minister Westerwelle stated before  the UN General Assembly--

 "As we Germans have experienced what it is to lack freedom in the course of our own history, we will always stand by those who, wherever they are in the world, call for freedom. For freedom of opinion and for freedom of religion. For freedom of the press and for artistic freedom.


Freedom has a daughter. It is tolerance.

And freedom has a son. It is respect.

Respect for other people.

Respect for what is important to others. Respect for what is sacred to others.


Freedom therefore does not mean freedom from responsibility. Freedom always means free­dom to shoulder responsibility."