Our bilateral relations are very good, they’re very close. In the areas of business, of the economy, the United States of America last year were our most important trading partner.

Ordinary people regard a man of a certain force and flexibility of character as they do a lion; they look at him with a sort of wonder, perhaps they admire him; but they will on no account house with him.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The land of unlimited opportunity was for me, for a long time, impossible to reach. The wall, barbed wire and the order to shoot at those who tried to leave limited my access to the free world.

If Europe today accounts for just over 7 per cent of the world's population, produces around 25 per cent of global GDP and has to finance 50 per cent of global social spending, then it's obvious that it will have to work very hard to maintain its prosperity and way of life.

Democracy must be our answer to terrorism

It's important that the disparities in the living conditions cannot be allowed in this digital period to be too marked. Each and every one must be given an opportunity to participate, which is why Germany's fate in many ways depends on the firmness of its alliance with NATO, with the European Union.