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In recent weeks there has been a great deal of ink spilled about a supposed "rift" between the Obama administration and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The blog Atlantic Review has several posts about this, and The New York Times had a hand-wringing article last week:
A rift has quietly opened up between Germany and the United States,
marked by official statements of harmony and private grumbling. It is
not an outright crisis in relations, but there are underlying tensions
and disagreements on matters ranging from the global economic crisis to
the future of inmates held at Guantánamo Bay.
marked by official statements of harmony and private grumbling. It is
not an outright crisis in relations, but there are underlying tensions
and disagreements on matters ranging from the global economic crisis to
the future of inmates held at Guantánamo Bay.
But on the eve of President Obama's historic visit to Dresden and Buchenwald Chancellor Merkel published an op/ed piece in the Sächsische Zeitung which put these rumors of a rift in the proper context. The piece was not picked up by the international press, but I translated it for Watching America.
Es bleibt unvergessen, welche Opfer erbracht wurden, damit Deutschland
und weite Teile Europas vom Nationalsozialismus befreit werden konnten.
Und Deutschland hätte auch seine Einheit in Frieden und Freiheit nicht
wiedererlangt, hätten die Amerikaner in den Zeiten von Mauer und
Stacheldraht nicht entschlossen auf der Seite der Freiheit gestanden. (We
can never forget the sacrifices made so that Germany and most of Europe
could be liberated from national socialism. And Germany never would
have been peacefully reunited in freedom, if Americans hadn’t stood on
the side of freedom during the long period of the wall and barbed wire.)
und weite Teile Europas vom Nationalsozialismus befreit werden konnten.
Und Deutschland hätte auch seine Einheit in Frieden und Freiheit nicht
wiedererlangt, hätten die Amerikaner in den Zeiten von Mauer und
Stacheldraht nicht entschlossen auf der Seite der Freiheit gestanden. (We
can never forget the sacrifices made so that Germany and most of Europe
could be liberated from national socialism. And Germany never would
have been peacefully reunited in freedom, if Americans hadn’t stood on
the side of freedom during the long period of the wall and barbed wire.)
Read my translation of the entire piece by the Chancellor at Watching America.
