Dear readers of the newsletter of the German Consulate General,

Please allow me first to express, also in the name of all my colleagues, my sincerest sympathy with the victims of the terrible attack on innocent civilians last Saturday in Vancouver, killing and severely injuring so many people. Our thoughts are with the Philippine community to which most of the victims belong and with the relatives and friends of those who were killed in this heinous attack. It was, as Vancouver Police Deputy Chief Constable Steve Rai said, “the darkest day in our city´s history”. It has severely hurt the community in Vancouver but it has not destroyed the spirit of the people who live in this great city, and with this spirit it will overcome this tragedy.

This May, we commemorate the 80^th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, the bloodiest and most cruel of all wars humankind has experienced. Not many people are still alive who have an active memory of these horrific years; for most of us, this dark epoch is only known from history books and stories from family members who have endured the horrendous hardships during and after the war.

The Cold War, which followed World War II, finally came to an end with the fall of the Iron Curtain in November 1989 and the reunification of Germany in October 1990. Many hoped that eternal peace would prevail now, some even spoke of the “end of history”, but history will never come to an end, quite the contrary. The collapse of structures in many parts of the world in the aftermath of the fall of the Iron Curtain led to disruptions and the emergence of old and new conflicts of which many have been underestimated in their long-term destructive potential. For nearly three decades, robust power has often been replaced by “soft power” with the well-intentioned idea that this approach would sustainably solve every conflict. As noble as this approach might be, it lasted too long, even when the signs on the wall became obvious. The developments in Russia and the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and the undeclared war in eastern Ukraine should have set off alarm bells. The brutal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine since February 2022 is the unmistakable proof that this approach has failed.

But not only in international relations, also in internal developments, we see to what it leads when disruptive forces are not tackled decisively early enough. Freedom and democracy cannot be taken for granted and they shouldn´t be abused by those who seek to abolish them. Even democracy and freedom have their limits; with good reason, Germany established the principle of the “militant democracy” after the Nazi terror, meaning that democracy must have the will and the means to defend its principles. Therefore, also freedom must have its limitations and rules; absolute freedom leads to anarchy and the dictatorship of the most powerful, a tendency we unfortunately see in many parts of the world, some of them not so far away. Freedom can only exist when everybody is free but respects the freedom of the neighbour. It was a German communist, Rosa Luxemburg, who formulated the famous phrase: “Freedom is always, and exclusively, freedom for the one who thinks differently”. She had the developments in the newly founded Soviet Union in mind but this phrase can be applied to any totalitarian system.

Our freedom can only survive if we stand up for it, internally against the destructive forces which have another social model in mind, but we also have to look at the root causes of these forces and develop robust answers to it based on the principles of a liberal democracy. And externally against allegedly superior powers which try to bully us and impose their ideas upon us. We have to show that we cherish our freedom and our values, that we stand by them and that we shall defend them. The impressive developments in Canada recently are a shining example which is worth to be followed: patriotism without nationalism, free and fair elections, tolerance and the observance of democratic rules and principles and the common will and conviction to set aright the challenges in society, despite differing political beliefs. We should remember this, not only during the upcoming commemorations of the 80^th anniversary of the end of World War II.

My colleagues and I wish you a peaceful month of May and a joyous spring,

Marc Eichhorn
Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany