If one has no compass, when one doesn't know where one stands and where one wants to go, one can deduce that one has no leadership or interest in shaping events.

Where is Germany now and where does it want to go? It's a question being asked by our partners and allies abroad. We have to return - urgently - to our old dependability. We have to make clear for others what we stand for, where we're headed, and that we know where we belong.

As a child, I personally didn't really get to know any Jews. I was eight years old when the Night of Broken Glass happened. And Ludwigshafen was purely a workers' city, so we didn't have a very big Jewish community. What I did know about the Jews, I heard from my mother. My mother was very much pro-Jewish.

You didn't just pay lip service to the goal of overcoming the division of Europe and Germany... Rather, you put yourself at the forefront of those who encouraged us on the way to unity.

We Germans have learned from history. We are a peace-loving, freedom-loving people. There is only one place for us in the world: at the side of the free nations.

The army is under orders to defend every place,