Steinmeier's alarming message

The role of the German president is to give important speeches and making symbolic gestures large and small that provide guidance to society. The power of the office is the power of the word, and little more. But the president deals with big issues such as maintaining solidarity in the world and in a country that is torn — a country with many wonderful people, but also quite a few stupid ones.

When Frank-Walter Steinmeier became president in February 2017, his first speech used the word "courage" as its primary theme. At the time, there was some scoffing about Steinmeier's talent as a public speaker. Former foreign ministers (and Steinmeier was foreign minister twice) tend to display objectivity and restraint in their speeches rather than any great empathy.

Since then, Steinmeier has found his style. And in a year filled with major speeches, many of them on delicate topics — from the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Holocaust commemoration 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz to the anniversary of the end of World War II, from the synagogue attack in Halle to the racist murders in Hanau — he has become a beacon, and often a warning beacon.

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Nothing is safe

In February 2017, Steinmeier spoke of courage. But even back then, he mentioned the importance of differentiating between facts and lies and urged people to try to do so. But absurd hate speech, criminal conspiracy theories and fake news continue to unsettle politics and society at all levels, from the lowest to the very highest.

At a Berlin ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, Steinmeier turned a commemoration into a warning with present-day relevance: Nothing is safe forever. And, Steinmeier warned, that also applies to freedom and democracy, the foundational principles of the Federal Republic of Germany — principles that are all the more important in a country that has experienced the brutality of totalitarianism and once tried to spread it throughout much of Europe.

Steinmeier's speech was an appeal to Germans to jointly remember their family histories and the history of their country. These are histories of both perpetrators and victims. In a way, this appeal comes too late, because not only the last eyewitnesses are dying, but even the first representatives of the generation that came after them. But, ultimately, it is never too late. For this country will fall apart if it does not seek out and cultivate its commonalities. That includes the way we think about public holidays and days of commemoration: The German National Day on October 3 celebrates the reunification of East Germany and West Germany in 1990, but it does not cancel out November 9 — the day on which the November Pogrom is remembered — or May 8.

Steinmeier's words were alarming. He quoted a sentence spoken by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin during a speech at the Holocaust commemoration in the German parliament at the end of January: "If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere." His words echo those of the author and Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi (1919-1987): "It happened, so it can happen again." The past has passed, but it exists.

The lure of a new nationalism, the fascination with authoritarianism, hate and contempt for democracy — these things are dangers to communities and to societies, Steinmeier said. These words should give us a wake-up call. This is about us: This is about here and now.

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