Speech before the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on October 22, 1999:
The Honorable Eberhard Diepgen
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for this very kind introduction and also for the opportunity to tell you something about the city of Berlin and to do it again after my speech [to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council] in l997.
I'm a little bit nostalgic. It's a time of anniversaries. In a few days it is ten years ago since the [Berlin] Wall came down. Sometimes, I look back to all of what happened before--especially when I stay here in Los Angeles and meet old friends, like Charles Wick. I remember that it was also only eleven years ago that we negotiated, Charles Wick and I, what happened to the broadcasting system in the American sector, RIAS [Rundfunk Im Amerikanischen Sektor]. In those times, we discussed if it would be possible, with a specific allies' Law, to build up television with this broadcasting system. Only eleven years ago I negotiated this system with the regime of the GDR [German Democratic Republic] about changing of the territories. In those times, we paid 80 million deutsche marks for that territory now built up near Potsdamerplatz. It was a great mistake of the government, I think--if they had only known that one year afterward we had the great change.
Having said this, here in Los Angeles, I have to say that without the help and the commitment of the United States, and especially the government of the United States, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, we never would have succeeded in the process of unification because in those times, after the coming down of the Wall, we needed friends who accepted the wish of the German people for unification. This was not the case, as we looked to other nations nearby Germany. But here, in the United States, there was no doubt that we had the help of the government. So, in a few days when I award [President] George Bush honorary citizenship in Berlin, we are trying to say ?thanks? now for what happened ten years ago.
I think that as a politician it is a great mistake only to look back. We have to look to the next century, to the next decades. We have to look to what our duty is in building our society, our democracy, and building international cooperation. For me, as the mayor of the city, it is very important to build up the city of Berlin as a very important city for the next century, a very important city for the next century in the center of Europe.
The last time we discussed the development of Berlin I told you-and I'm sure that you've seen the pictures on television-that Berlin was a great construction site, the "City of the Cranes." The competition was with Shanghai and Beijing. Now Berlin becomes more and more this important city in the center of Europe. The construction is [ending] and the buildings are finished more and more, but the city is not finished. We need more decades, and Berlin will never be finished. That's typical for metropolises, but, and I agree, now Berlin is the capital of the reunited Germany.
Government and parliament have moved to Berlin, with a lot of national and international companies, and international and lobbying associations. The embassies moved to Berlin. There's a new strength in the city of Berlin after all the problems of the past.
I don't want to tell you that the city of Berlin is without problems; no, just the opposite. We have to bring together the people from former East and former West [Berlin]. We have the duty to organize a frame for one identity in the city, and that's a great difficulty because the east part of Berlin was a point of concentration for the Communist system, the Communist elites.
These people are still living in the city of Berlin. The west part, it was a symbol of anti-Communism. This history makes it clear what is the task and the aim of politics in Germany and especially in Berlin.
It is not so much a question of economy, not so much a question of money, it's a question of the mentality-different mentalities of people. Those who have the experience that from the "cradle to the grave" all is organized by the state, they have to learn that in a democracy, in the market system, in a system of social markets, they have to do for themselves. That's the great difference, and people have to learn. The younger generation, they have no problems with that. But for the elderly generation, for those people who lived more than 40 years in this regime, they had some plans for their life now not possible to succeed. That's a problem for the people.
Afterward I will tell you something about the elections and development in Germany--not only the elections in Berlin, but the elections in the whole, in the states, what are the differences, what is changing of Germany.
My main message for the city of Berlin is that we succeed in this process of modernizing the city, of changing the economic background, of bringing together the people, of organizing--yes, organizing--a little bit, the discussion between the people with these different experiences in the past. Now we have one educational system, one social system, one administration, and we move not only from Bonn to Berlin, but we move, inside the city of Berlin from the east to the west, from the west to the east, from the north to the south. We forced the people to come together and to discuss with each other in their jobs, and sometimes in the private sphere, too. That's the most important problem. So it comes together more and more. The moving inside the city that minimizes these differences between the regions of Berlin's regions, the districts of Berlin.
As for the future, what is our idea for Berlin as a city for the next century? It's first an idea in a city's development, a mixture of the old and new. Reconstruction of the old buildings, not so much existing after the war, but reconstruction and modern architecture such as the reconstruction of the Reichstag [parliament], the old building, and using a new dome, the idea of an architect, Foster. Perhaps you have seen that on television. So it is the same for the whole of the city, with the reconstruction of old buildings and with the new architecture on Potsdamerplatz....So, our idea is, in this mixture between old and new, old architecture and new modern architecture, to find one view of the city, not the same as Shanghai or Abu Dhabi, but very typical of Berlin and very typical for the people. Because if you look to the streets, it is the people, the man, that are at the foreground or the center of all the ideas....You have to look to the streets, not the buildings.
The next [idea] is a mixture of functions-living and working in one area. The second [idea] is to build up the infrastructure of the city with traffic systems and all that. I see out there a table with the name "Lufthansa" [Airline]. We built our new airport to be an international airport, and we hope we will have direct flights from Los Angeles to Berlin, too. It's possible.
In this modernizing economy, it's not the old city of industries now. It's a city of new services, new technologies, with new productions, with biotechnology, with traffic technologies, with medicine. There's communication and the main and best development we have had, which is the new media, with more than 100,000 new jobs now.
Very important for the city of Berlin is that, with all that tension between the former East and West, there was the tension between old and new. [Berlin] is very attractive for young people, and young people from all over Germany now come to Berlin, like mosquitoes to the light. The tension and the great changing of the city make Berlin so attractive and, as a city between East and West, in Europe we have good chances. In all that is cultural development, there is a variety of culture. The strength of our universities and our research institutes--we have good chances for the future. It's a city for the next decade and for the next century.
There is something comparable to the situation here in Los Angeles. If I look at biotechnology or the media, there are some possibilities for better cooperation in the film industry and we [should] try to [work on this in] the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is our idea for the city of Berlin, as the capital of Germany, because a capital is not only the place of government. A capital is also the place of all main discussions in the nation, not only in the nation, not only for Germany, but for Europe, and also for international development. Because we have all these discussions and decisions concerning the enlargement of the European Union, the new challenge to the center of Europe, and the new developments to the Baltic Sea, that's the old traditional positions of Berlin, and we built up that again. These are our future challenges.
Cultural variety brings international flavor. More than 60,000 people have come to Berlin from Russia--not all members of the Mafia. That is typical because then you have a situation where we have the know-how from the old West and the old East, and can use that in building up new economic strength. That's our position, and perhaps the position and the possibility for a lot of companies from Los Angeles coming to Berlin.
Now my second message: sometimes I am asked if in German politics, was there a great change in the government move from the River Rhine to Berlin. My answer is: the "Berlin Republic." I think it is necessary to define that, because that's the discussion we have internationally. One of the great changes in the Berlin Republic is that Berlin now symbolizes much more of the politics in Germany. I have my problems with that sometimes, because in the news on television, for example, I hear that there is trouble in the Berlin government, there is chaos in the Berlin government, and I have to declare to the people that that is not the Berlin government; it's only the government in Berlin, not my government. So, that's one of the changes.
We have to live with that and we have to define, to differentiate. But is there real change? My answer is "no and yes." No, because in the mainstream of German politics there is continuity in the ties to the West, including the Western alliances, the Western world of values; there, there's no change. But we have a new situation after the coming down of the Wall in Europe.
We have to look much more to the center and to the east of Europe. And that's typical for Berlin. Berliners are a cradle of cooperation between Europe and the United States, the European Atlantic cooperation. There was the airlift and the founding of NATO-the history of Berlin. And so it is very clear that we need this cooperation with the United States. It has been a part of our philosophy. But now we have to accept that, for example, Berlin is nearby Prague and Warsaw, and Paris and London are far away. That's historical dimension. The borderline to Poland is only 80 kilometers away from the center of Berlin; so, that's our interest in the center of Europe and that's our interest to the enlargement of the European Union.
That's not a real change in German politics, but it underlines very much the new interests and new necessities in organizing the Europe of freedom, peace and social justice. I don't think that it is the right time now to discuss the membership of all East European countries to the European Union. We have to look at that a little bit cautiously. It's my personal position that we want to have a Europe with specific responsibilities, not a Europe that becomes larger and larger to where you have no cultural identity. Sometimes, that's a remark to the American foreign politics too. It is necessary to define what is Europe, what was Europe in history and what will be Europe in the future, not only the Europe of economy, but of cultures and of common sense. Very clear is that we need the enlargement to include Poland, Chechnya and the Baltic States, and then the new role of the Baltic Sea should be considered, for example.
The third point that I want to touch on is a definition of the Berlin Republic that's modernizing our society--and that's typical for Berlin, too. Because in this metropolis there is no possibility for German politics to look in another direction to solve our social problems. The social problems, the problems of universities, the new forms of international competition, and the modernization of our society and of our state are parts of the Berlin Republic--in my definition. That's a fact....
My third point concerns the question of what happened in Germany during the last election when the Post Communist Party became so strong. A few months after the changing of the federal government, we had strains of a new opposition. The main questions that I've been asked here in the United States are: "What is the concern of the Communist Party? Is it a danger for development in Germany? What is the reason?" I think it's not so much a question that all those voters for the PDS, Post Communist Party, are Communists or left-wing socialists. They want to have a social balance in politics....It's not a question or concern that the people in the so-called "New Laender" want to have back the old regime-that's crazy. The idea is crazy. We have elderly people with a lot of problems, yes, and because we have a lot of differences between East and West--for example in wages, salaries and accepting of examinations--so we have a position between East and West and tensions between East and West.
Ten years, that's nothing! In the development, we have to look to the mentality of people, and ten years is nothing if you look to the great differences in economic development between the former East and former West. For Berlin, there is a specific problem. I've just told you that the East is a very special concern, the concentration point of the old systems and the Post Communist Party. In my definition and my analysis, the party with the old structures, people who accept all the things coming from the leadership of the Post Communist Party, have the chance to discuss with the younger generation. But that's not deep in the ideas of this party. It's only in the foreground, but that's all not so important. That's my message. That's not an idea that they want to come back to the old positions. That's my third message.
So you can see that I'm full of optimism for the development of the city of Berlin and the same for the development of Germany. We will succeed in all these problems, and the knowledge, the education, of Germany will bring out some positions [so] that we will succeed in international competition, too.
Thank you very much.