Die deutsche Geschichte geht weiter. ( dtv Zeitgeschichte).

by Richard von Weizsäcker

German

Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (CDU) was President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1984 to 1994.

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

„Bei uns ist eine neue Generation in die politische Verantwortung hereingewachsen. Die Jungen sind nicht verantwortlich für das, was damals geschah. Aber sie sind verantwortlich für das, was in der Geschichte daraus wird.”

“In our country, a new generation has grown up to assume political responsibility. Our young people are not responsible for what happened over forty years ago. But they are responsible for the historical consequences.”

- Richard von Weizsäcker, May 8, 1985 (Deutsch, English)

Ambrose Bierce, in defining a politician in The Devil’s Dictionary, noted, “As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.” Richard von Weizsäcker was a rare exception to the rule. His speech commemorating the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II continues to be cited by Germanas as both an acceptance historical responsibility and a challenge of how the experience must inform and motivate present and future generations. Made less than a year after he had become president of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), when the nation was split and on the front line of the Cold War, Weizsäcker would serve until 1994, through the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany. Largely ceremonial as head of state, the German presidency stands above day-to-day politics, serving a unifying, representatively symbolic political function. History thus far has proven him to the epitome of what the office represents.

Weizsäcker was born into a world of aristocratic privilege. His father Ernst, served in the German navy, joined the diplomatic corp in 1920, and was in the Third Reich’s Foreign Ministry, serving as its ambassador to the Vatican in its final two years. He was aligned with a number of resistance efforts and tried to undermine Nazi rule from within. Nonetheless, he was tried and found guilty of war crimes in 1949, a verdict Winston Churchill famously derided as a “deadly error,” serving more than three years of a seven-year sentence. Richard’s brother, Carl Friedrich, was a noted physicist who worked with Werner Heisenberg in the Third Reich. Richard was in the German army during the war and went into business after. Serving the nation buttressed by a strong religious ethic was, in a sense, a family tradition.

Prior to his presidency, Weizsäcker was a leading figure in the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) who did not shy away from the partisan give-and-take such a role demands. But he was always different. He never demonized his opposition, valued compromise as a political goal, and would break with his party to praise the accomplishments of political opponents if he believed they served constructive policies. He was a partner and supporter of Social Democratic Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik, which normalized relations with East Germany and Soviet sphere of influence. As a conservative, he championed social welfare programs to foster an egalitarian society, policies, in retrospect, that were essential to achieving the post-war German economic miracle. And as a devout protestant who took on leadership roles in his church, he was a consistent champion of pluralism.

This long-forgotten, out-of-print volume, Die deutsche Geschichte geht weiter (German History Goes On), was released in 1983, the year before he became president. The collection of speeches presented at various venues ranging from political, religious, and commemorative functions and parliamentary debates (with audience reactions) are surprisingly comprehensive and, at times, intellectually and politically rousing. Intended to educate and remind Germans about the man who would easily be elected president by all German parties in 1984, today it is a time capsule of sorts that constructive decency truly was once a part of political life. Rather than discuss individual pieces, I have translated a selection below to provide a sampling of the wisdom and inspiration they contain (proviso: any clumsiness in English translation is my responsibility alone; the German original is eloquent and incisive).

As global citizens, we are as far removed from constructive politics and governing—everywhere—as we have ever been in the past century. Selfishness, arrogance, and absolute senses of entitlement have bred an inability to compromise and see other human beings as human beings with fundamental needs and rights. Weizsäcker never donned such blinders in his private and public life.

During the turmoil of the Watergate crisis and OPEC-caused oil shortages during the mid-1970s, the American rock group Chicago released a single with the lyric, “American needs you, Harry Truman.” Although few remember him today and the lyricism would certainly be odd, now, more than ever, the song we need is: “The world needs you, Richard von Weizsäcker.”

(As a lowly staffer in the U.S. Senate, I had the privilege of attending a speech Weizsäcker gave at the U.S. House of Representatives—literally sitting in the middle of the floor thanks to a ticket provided to me by my boss—in 1992. It remains one of the most memorable moments of my life. Had I read this book before attending, I might have been screaming like a girl at the Ed Sullivan theater when The Beatles performed.)

„Der Staat hat die Aufgabe, das Gemeinwohl zu sichern. Kernstück seiner Tätigkeit sind Maßnahmen ausgleichender Gerechtigkeit zugunsten derer, die sich selbst nicht ausreichend helfen können. Die Verantwortung für eine gerechte Gesellschaft liegt bei ihm. Aber die Macht, dieser Verantwortung gerecht zu werden, entgleitet ihm mehr und mehr.”

“The state has the duty to secure the common good. The essence of its obligations are to balance measures of justice to benefit those who are not able to sufficiently help themselves. The responsibility to be just lies with it. But the responsibility to exercise this power fairly slips away more and more.”

„Es gilt doch zu verhindern, daß in irgendeinem Bundesland unsere Kinder durch radikale Lehrer zur Intoleranz erzogen werden können.”

“It is obvious we must prevent, in any state, that our children might possibly be taught by radical teachers.”

„Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland erwarb sich ihre politische Handlungsfähigkeit nicht zuletzt deshalb, weil es eine pragmatische Allianz quer durch die Partien gab. Pragmatische Politik bedeutet nicht, auf grundsätzliche Orientierung zu verzichten, wohl aber sich gegen eine ideologische Fixierung der Programme auszusprechen. Denn diese machen zum Kompromiß und damit zur Demokratie unfähig. Politische Heilslehren führen zur totalitären Rechthaberei. Pragmatische Politik dagegen ist der heilsame Zwang zur Konzentration der Werte und Ziele auf die Fähigkeit zur Entscheidung.”

“The Federal Republic of Germany earned its political capacity to act in no small part because of pragmatic alliances running through all parties. Pragmatic politics does not mean renouncing fundamental bearings, but rather to be against pronouncements of ideological fixations of agendas. Because these make compromise, and therefore democracy itself, impossible. Political doctrines lead to totalitarian dogmatism. Pragmatic politics is, on the other hand, concentrate the healing obligations of values and goals on the capacity to decide.”

„Sozialleistungen sind heute nicht Almosen, sondern Rechtsansprüche. Das ist ihr großer Fortschritt.”

“Social welfare benefits today are not charity, but rather legal rights. That is their greatest accomplishment.”

„Dem Menschen droht, kaum daß er der alten Objektrolle entronnen ist, eine neue: zum Objekt des Kollektivs zu werden…Denn es gibt keine totalen Antworten, sondern höchstens totalitäre, die wir nicht wollen. Es geht vielmehr um Etappen und Schritte auf dem Weg zu Freiheit.”

“What threatens the individual is not losing the role of being the object, it is a new one: to become an object of a collective…because there are no total answers, at best totalitarian, which we don’t want. It is more about stages and steps on the way to freedom.”

„Die Weimarer Republik ist nicht gescheitert, weil es zu viele Nazis gegeben hatte, sondern zu wenig wirklich überzeugte Demokraten…Zu wenige Deutsche waren es gewesen, die den Ausgang des Ersten Weltkrieges und den Übergang zur Weimarer Republik innerlich angenommen hatten…Sie ließen die Menschen allmählich den Glauben verlieren, daß die Republik imstande sei, einem Chaos zu wehren.”

“The Weimar Republic did not fail because there were too many Nazis, but rather too few genuine, committed democrats…Too few Germans inwardly accepted the results of the first World War and the transition to the Weimar Republic…They let the people gradually lose belief that the Republic was in a position to defend against chaos.”

„Wer die moralische Basis seiner Politik nicht klarzumachen weiß, macht schlechte Politik. Moral auch im Sinn der Versöhnung ist nicht auf das persönlich mitmenschliche Verhältnis beschränkt, sondern gehört auch zu den Elementen staatlicher Beziehungen.”

“Those who don’t know how to make the moral basis of their policy clear, make bad policy. Morality, even in the sense of reconciliation, is not just limited to personal relationships, but rather also belongs to the elements of state relations.”

„Sowjetische Politik gegenüber Europa ist bei der alten russischen Tradition geblieben: Es geht um die langfristige und geduldig ins Werk gesetzte Ausdehnung des politischen Einflusses…Was den Kreml vor allem beunruhigt, ist der Gedanke an einen echten Machzuwachs Westeuropas.”

“Soviet policy with respect to Europe has abided by an old Russian tradition: It’s about the process of long-term and patient expansion of political influence…What worries the Kremlin the most is the idea of an actual increase of power in western Europe.

„Die Frage nach ihrer Identität und Nation hat den Deutschen noch nie allein gehört.”

“The question of their own identity and nation has never belonged to Germans alone.”

„Wer nicht weiß, wo er auf die Dauer hingehört, wird auch keine Fähigkeit und Bereitschaft entwickeln, sich einzugliedern.”

“Those who don’t know where they belong in the long run will also never develop the ability and readiness to integrate.”