Event reports
After an opening song performed by Sebastian Krumbiegel, who sang about "my nation are the loving ones of the world. Borderless", Kurt Beck, the Chairman of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung welcomed the long list of guests including Chancellor Angela Merkel, president of the Bundesrat, Volker Bouffier, president of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, president of Germany's Federal Constitutional Court, Andreas Voßkuhle and many other high representatives.
Before diving into sharing his thoughts about freedom, and giving the audience a moving explanation of the connection between freedom, hope and peace, the Israeli author David Grossman started off by some personal words to his 'friend', Joachim Gauck. "When you look today at your life, from the summit of 75 years, I think you can be proud. Not many have endured, as you have, such difficult trials... After each meeting with you, I say to myself, this man is a 'mentsch'. But I'm not saying this in German, but in Yiddish where the word means "someone you can rely on in any situation; and also: "someone who will be a man, even when and where it is hard to be a man, and even harder to be human."
An Israeli, congratulating the German President. Not an obvious choice, Grossman said, but "moved by its significance." After describing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and what it is to have lived a life marked by a daily reality "where words like peace or hope are likely to sound like empty slogans", Grossman realises that, when thinking about peace, basically he is thinking about freedom. "Yes: peace is freedom. External freedom that can also enable internal freedom". And this, he said, is the freedom he does not know, for has lived his whole life without experiencing even a single moment of true peace. It is that hope, the hope of nevertheless, quoting the president "the winter within the summer", that motivated Gauck to fight for freedom in the summer of 1989, that still beats in some hearts of Israelis and Palestinians. "The hope that if some day, the fires of conflict will subside, the healthy and sane character of both peoples will gradually reappear."
In his closing words, Grossman pointed out, that standing in front of this audience "as a Jew, whose family members, 80 people in all, where murdered in the holocaust", being asked to deliver this speech in the same week the world marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, "this, too, is an act of freedom of hope." Honouring the president for his words this Monday in Auschwitz, "there is no German identity without Auschwitz". It is in this ability, the ability to remember and to take responsibility, to grieve and to look at one another as human being, "that here too", Grossman says: "is great freedom to be found".
Ending the evening with a discussion between Gauck and scholarship fellows from all participating political foundations also suited the president. One could tell, Gauck enjoyed being surrounded by young enthusiasts, talking about the words freedom and democracy. Though having to conclude, after hearing their thoughts, the project of freedom remains unfinished, "the youngest generation is dreaming more than ever about democracy and freedom. And we have done this all already 25 years ago. We can do democracy," Gauck said and was greatly applauded. "We have to invest more in communicating our principles to make sure they don't lose in importance and to achieve a bigger acceptation for democracy." Thanking the political foundations for this evening and for the in-depth discussion by saying: "if our foundations did not exist already, they should have to be invented." "That, what we see and hear tonight is our land" Gauck finishes off his birthday party, proud to sit in a what he called, family-round, together with people that are not only observing, but also willing to act.
About this series
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, its educational institutions, centres and foreign offices, offer several thousand events on various subjects each year. We provide up to date and exclusive reports on selected conferences, events and symposia at www.kas.de. In addition to a summary of the contents, you can also find additional material such as pictures, speeches, videos or audio clips.