Facing Covid-19, German President calls for "more cooperation" as in 1945

In a speech to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe, the German president drew a parallel, Friday May 8, between this period of our history and the coronavirus pandemic.

He called on the international community to learn lessons from the end of this conflict by moving towards "more cooperation" in the fight against Covid-19, and "no less". "We must not accept that the peace order" put in place from 1945 "goes up in smoke before our eyes", said Frank-Walter Steinmeier from Berlin, "we want more and not less cooperation in the world , including in the fight against the pandemic ". 

Frank-Walter Steinmeier: “May 8 was a day of liberation but it lasted long before it was accepted by many Germans. A memory work of several decades was necessary to allow democracy to mature in our country ”.

"A day of gratitude"

The German president, the moral authority of the country, also called on his compatriots to consider May 8, 1945 as a day of "gratitude" and not bitterness for the defeat and suffering suffered during the Allied bombings, the expulsion of the German populations Eastern European territories or the loss of territories.

"Yes, we Germans can say today: liberation day is a day of gratitude!" He said, and "it took three generations for us to say it wholeheartedly" . Frank-Walter Steinmeier was thus referring to another speech by one of his predecessors, Richard von Weizsäcker, which has gone down in history. 

In 1985, for the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, the latter had for the first time spoken of a "day of liberation" also for Germany, thus forcing a break with the still widely held perception of defeat in the mentalities. 

By using the term "gratitude" this time, Germany takes a further step in its work of memory, at a time when the far right is questioning the culture of German repentance for Nazi crimes, the pillar of national reconstruction. 'after war.

With AFP

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