When the Bundersminister des Auswertigen
M Frank Walter Steimmeir Looks at his history
Of German Responsibility 1945-2015
by Dr Frantz Bataille
The former Haitian charge d affaires
.jpg)
It s while reading the beautiful book of essays written by the German foreign minister FWS that we learn or start learning Germany as a whole or what it used to be 70 years after the war. We will remember this country not only for what it was at war, but also for what it is about to become. Nobody could express better than the FWS this new Germany coping with its own past. Surely, History continue to be regarded as a sort of victors’ propaganda; but, when the defeated make their voices known, it is amazing , they are doing so this time without bias and with a kind of genuine approach. While keeping the memory alive according to Mr. Steinmmeir this serene and open -minded generation is also making a point, and aims matter –of- factly, at taking a new stand in the international community with the help of allied, emphasizes the foreign minister More than a book of reflexions on the German past, FWS also wrote about a time of triumph of myths over reason, as Thomas Mann put it. In people as well nations and states, delusions trigger catastrophes and drama. Consequently, FWS understand that the best to do is helping German to free themselves from its tremendous past . No matter what this past had been, by facing it up, Germany seems to have undergone through a catharsis process, thought the Foreign minister.
A blessing of times
Historical guilt or not, FWS’s book has been revisiting the German history, 70 years later, with as much as perspective possible. Time finally has the last word. A lot of water had been flowing under the bridge since , taking away wounds and anger. However, FWS told us, it is with a new gaze and maybe a new heart that Germany surfaces again, while without denial, agreeing that his past is his with its highs and lows. "Tthere are difficult fatherlands, one of them is Germany but this is our fatherland" concludes FWS quoting the third Federal President Gustav Heinemann
Nowadays, it happens happily that Germany is a country that is being listened to and a reliable partner in the international community, observes with optimism the Foreign Bundersminister. This German rebirth is as well as a reward and a blessing of time, believe or not.
However, with some concern about how the modern world tries to prevent the bloody fighting of the late !8TH and 19th century across European battle fields, FWS went back to the Westphalia treaty, when statesmen and the likes sat down around a table to laid the foundation of international agreement. FWS underlined not only the main moments of the Wesphalia times encompassing the clashes that ended the Thirty year war, but also those of !815-1919-1945. From then, the world would change for the most of the 20th century. This farewell to arms implies the partition of Germany, a beginning of change in some parts of Asia and Africa, the birth of a bipolar world and the launching of the cold war.
The new world backdrop or order
While that way the super powers start to shape a world on their own, and the outline of an uncertain eternal peace blinking in the sky of an ending war, some authors lately would summarize this incoming era by asking in the aftermath of the collapse of the Berlin Wall where all the soldiers goneɁ
As a result , 70 years later, in the meantime, the least we could say is that Germany from 1933 to start with, haunts on our history and memory. Would had German history changed our times and our world Ɂ any answer would be too precipitate with regards to the ongoing years seeing the nascent tragedy of the non states actors by example. But, no matter what is now happening, we must to observe that a new Germany with a change of heart and a change of guard as well is taking the stand, by the time silence fell on the bloody Europe on the WWII, wrote FWS.
The backdrop of the human history would no longer be the same!
Dr F. Bataille
Berlin, August 2016
On continue encore à faire la queue pour visiter Notre Dame de Paris, ce haut lieu du tourisme français immortalisé par Victor Hugo. Tout près, le restaurant Esméralda rappelle que le roman participe encore à la vie quotidienne de cette cathédrale, au pied de laquelle les touristes affluent. Un couple espagnol nous dit « Vamos a comer y Que tenga un buen día!
