The people in East Germany have lived through so many changes in the last 15 years like never before in the country, and they did this often with great enthusiasm. But in the West we also have a high degree of transformations.

To be serious, if we were only interested in earning big money then a politician would have to go and work in industry.

With political means and always trying to work for political settlements and this is what I'm going to continue to work on with all my heart.

Ladies, it is not your education, status or personality that has brought you here but the elegance of God which was still and still working upon you.

If you want to be constructive in politics, the less you look back, the better. If you do look back, then it can only be to learn for yourself through the events that have taken place.

I might bend, but I will NEVER break because it's in my nature as a strong woman.

Our relationship with the United States is not reduced to questions of fighting terrorism and the Iraq war. German-American relations were so good for so many years because they extended deeply into the normal lives of people.