The third German State Visit
Translated from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 3 July, 1986
The third State Visit of a German Federal President in Great Britain -- after the two memorable visits of the Queen in the Federal Republic --may be said to lack novelty, although those who belong to von Weizsäcker's generation and others older still will yet register surprise that it was possible at all for British and Germans to enter into potential friendship. When they invited the Federal President to address both Houses of Parliament, the British accorded an unprecedented honour to the Germans as a whole. The honour to speak to the Mother of Parliaments is something special and for the British Government it is clearly a means of fostering a relationship to which is attached the greatest importance.
Apart from expressing tacit respect for the Federal Republic, there is also the desire that the political ties should be firmer and closer. The Federal President used this opportunity of returning the compliment with thanks. Those Germans who, in 1945, admittedly only in West Germany, regained their political liberty, owe this also to the British nation which, in its Finest Hour, as Churchill called it, waged for an anxious time, the fight against Hitler alone. What would have happened to all of us if the British had given in then?
