No change in the balance of political parties can alter the general determination that no class should be excluded from contributing to and sharing responsibility for the state.

I must begin by saying something about the old Germany. That Germany, too, suffered from superficial judgment, because appearances and reality were not always kept apart in people's minds.

To walk behind others on a road you are traveling together, to give precedence to others without envy - this is painful for an individual and painful for a nation.

In every man the memory of the struggles and the heroes of the past is alive. But these memories are not incompatible with the desire for peace in the future.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

Nothing is more misleading to the youth of a nation than to state the outcome immediately after the beginning as if nothing could have taken place in between.

A people that has experienced all that the Germans have been through, naturally offers fertile soil for the extremists.