Frank-Walter Steinmeier makes speech at Warsaw

[JustJohn or JJ]

German president asks Poland for forgiveness at WW2 ceremony

Frank-Walter Steinmeier makes speech at Warsaw event to mark 80 years since start of war

The German president vowed his country would never forget the atrocities of the Nazi period on Sunday as he asked forgiveness from Poland during a series of commemorative events to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war.

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/01/german-president-asks-poland-for-forgiveness-at-ww2-ceremony?fbclid=IwAR19cbh01kL-oW_cZZoHCMWizN1f0SkXRvdlVqHoJe83Sja5JikCiOGlUbA

[pieter]

[pieter]

This reminds me of Willy Brandt (1913 – 1992) Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1969 to 1974. The image of the kneeling Brandt in front of the Warsaw Getho monument went viral over the world.



Ostpolitik


Willy Brandt honors the Jewish and Polish victims at the Monument tothe Ghetto Heroes in warsaw

Neue Ostpolitik (German for "new eastern policy"), or Ostpolitik for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) beginning in 1969. Influenced by Egon Bahr, who proposed "change through rapprochement" in a 1963 speech at the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, the policies were implemented beginning with Willy Brandt, fourth Chancellor of the FRG from 1969 to 1974.

Ostpolitik was an effort to break with the policies of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which was the elected government of West Germany from 1949 until 1969. The Christian Democrats under Konrad Adenauer and his successors tried to combat the Communist regime of East Germany, while Brandt's Social Democrats tried to achieve a certain degree of cooperation with East Germany.

The term Ostpolitik has since been applied to Pope Paul VI's efforts to engage Eastern European countries during the same period. The term Nordpolitik was also coined to describe similar rapprochement policies between North and South Korea beginning in the 1980s.

The easing of tensions with the East envisioned by Ostpolitik necessarily began with the Soviet Union, the only Eastern Bloc state with which the Federal Republic had formal diplomatic ties (despite the aforementioned Hallstein Doctrine). In 1970 Brandt signed the Treaty of Moscow, renouncing the use of force and recognizing the current European borders. Later that year, Brandt signed the Treaty of Warsaw, in the process formally recognizing the People's Republic of Poland. The Treaty of Warsaw essentially repeated the Moscow treaty, and in particular reiterated the Federal Republic's recognition of the Oder–Neisse line. Treaties with other Eastern European countries followed.

[pieter]

POLAND: GERMAN CHANCELLOR SCHROEDER VISIT

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday December 7, 2000 urged fellow European Union leaders to put Europe-wide interests ahead of narrow national concerns at a pivotal E-U summit that week in Nice, France.
His remarks one day before the summit were warmly welcomed by Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, whose government expressed frustration at what it saw as a slowdown in E-U expansion plans.
Poland was among a dozen countries, mostly communist states of Eastern Europe, struggling to make their economies and laws fit for E-U membership.
Warsaw wanted to join by 2003, a timetable some E-U officials say is too optimistic. Poland later joined the EU in May 2004.
The E-U's 15 existing members also were struggling to put their own house in order for the economic bloc's much-touted eastward expansion.
The Nice summit was supposed to address wide differences over changes to voting rules that could affect the influence of member states in a much larger Union.
Schroeder was in Warsaw to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of a landmark Polish-German treaty signed December 7, 1970, that began a long process of reconciliation between the two neighbours.
He also was paying tribute to former Chancellor Willy Brandt, who signed the treaty as part of his Ostpolitik policy of bridge-building with what was then communist Eastern Europe.
Nobel literature laureate Gunter Grass and Brandt's widow, Brigitte, also took part in the ceremony.
Buzek and Schroeder also unveiled a plaque commemorating the Brandt's visit to Warsaw 30 years ago, when he unexpectedly dropped to his knees in a dramatic gesture of atonement at a Warsaw Ghetto monument to the (m) millions of Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust.
SOUNDBITE: (German)
"We need to be brave in Nice we have to think as Europeans about the people in the East we want to think about Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states therefore we have put national interest to the back of our minds to fulfill this historic mission."
SUPERCAPTION: Gerhard Schroeder, German Chancellor
SOUNDBITE: (German)
"Nice has to be a milestone. That's why I'm making this urgent appeal to my counterparts: let's be brave."
SUPERCAPTION: Gerhard Schroeder, German Chancellor
SOUNDBITE: (German)
"Willy Brandt's gesture from thirty years ago left us breathless - (went down on knees to apologise. ) Here was a German Chancellor who represented the German people expressing compassion. He succeeded in doing something which words could never have done."
SUPERCAPTION: Gerhard Schroeder, German Chancellor

[pieter]

The German president Joachim Gauck spoke about the German guilt in Poland and the fact that he feels at home in Poland, because Poland symbolises Freedom for him.
Poland was the first foreign country he visited as German president. He also spoke about the good cooperation between Poland and Germany and the good relationship.

[karl]

The state visit of the late Willy Brandt was an honourable event of his honouring the war time victims of both Jewisch and Polish alike. This was a wise and sensative event to honour both peoples for their loss of life for no good reason.

But with this latest visit of Frank-Walter Steinmeir is ladden with a great many self made hidden traps and tanglements for the future. Perhaps it will turn out for the best, is the best of hopes. For what he has done, is opened up the gates of a conflict of interest that may or may not evolve from his speech. For at this time with the currant Polish Government, is ripe for their argument of war time reparations to be repeated. This done some may years in the past and the time is ripe to simply get over the war and get on with the present and future.

For him {Frank-walter Steinmeir to ask for forgiveness as a repeat of that what the late Willy Brandt had many years past spoken is to my self to have the Russians ask me for forgiveness for the death of my father by the actions of their solders, then pay me reparations for my loss.

Karl

[pieter]