Federal President Steinmeier calls for willingness to engage in dialogue in a diverse society

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called on people in Germany to be willing to talk to each other and warned against compartmentalizing and sticking to their own positions. In a society as diverse as Germany's, there will always be different experiences, different resonance spaces, depending on where you live and grew up, Steinmeier said in a speech at the Leipzig Book Fair on Thursday, according to the speech script published in advance. "Only one thing must not happen: That these different worlds of experience become isolated places of retreat around which walls are erected."

Our society needs "curiosity instead of self-reflection, openness instead of retreat, trust instead of mistrust, suggestions instead of accusations", said Steinmeier. "Because we only have political strength as a community and not if we see ourselves primarily as victims of differences." What is needed is energy for the major challenges ahead, confidence in ourselves and a shared narrative of our democracy. "We are a strong country that has also overcome crises in the past - with drive and ideas. Let us trust that we will also succeed in the future."

When Germans look back this year on 75 years of the Basic Law and 35 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall, they have much to be proud of. "A lot has been achieved in our democracy. Nevertheless, we cannot simply sit back and relax in this double anniversary year," Steinmeier emphasized. After all, our democracy is under greater external and internal threat than ever before. "That is why this double anniversary year is a year of joy and testing. Protecting and strengthening our democracy, making it more resilient, that is the test we are facing."

Steinmeier said that he was somewhat concerned that many East Germans in particular felt that 75 years of the Basic Law was not their anniversary. He would like to celebrate the double anniversary of the Basic Law and the fall of the Berlin Wall together. "In the clear awareness that it was only in 1989 that the promise of freedom in the Basic Law was fulfilled for all Germans. And with an equally clear view that we are called upon at all times, especially today, to keep the promises of the Basic Law anew."

The Federal President paid tribute to the new generation of East German writers who were still children or not even born at the time of the fall of the Wall. He named Anne Rabe, Manja Präkels, Lukas Rietzschel and Matthias Jügler as examples. "A clearly audible voice can be heard here from the east of our country. A voice that is diverse and in turn polyphonic. A voice that tells a new and different story," said Steinmeier. "And this voice is an enrichment for us all."