Промова Посла Гаймзьота з нагоди 20-річчя Посольства Німеччини в Києві

Пане Президенте,

панове Міністри,

шановні депутати,

шановні колеги,

дорогі друзі Посольства Німеччини,

вельмишановні пані й панове,

20 years ago today, the German Embassy in Kiew was officially opened. A few days later Hennicke Graf von Bassewitz was the first foreign diplomat to hand over letters of credentials to the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, thus automatically becoming the first doyen of the diplomatic Corps in independent Ukraine. I would like to thank President Kravchuk for honouring us with his presence here today.

Those were difficult times. The Embassy was set up in the old Hotel Shakhtar on Vulitsa Honchara, a building with 5 floors without a lift. Every office room had a bath, which was quickly reconverted into storage space. But Ambassador von Bassewitz was used to working without luxury. During his whole time in Kiew he only had a camp bed in his residence. But he managed to make friends quickly, being unconventional and hospitable, making up for missing luxury with collective consumption of vodka. I want to pay tribute to all my predecessors von Bassewitz, Alexander Arnot, Eberhard Heycken, Dietmar Stüdemann and Reinhard Schäfers, whose portraits you can see over there, and who each in their own way together with their respective Embassy staff contributed to the development of our relations. Their work would not have been possible without our dedicated Ukrainian staff, to whom I am grateful. I am happy that Tetyana Terno, Lyuba Volkova, Volodymyr Shelest and Nikolay Kostarenko, who have been working with the Embassy since the very first day, are here with us today.

Looking back, we can say that a lot has been achieved in these 20 years. I do not want to go into too much detail. Let us just recall some milestones.

In 1993, one year after opening the Embassy, the Office of the Delegate of German Business was set up, to help us foster our economic ties. President Janukovych reminded us only this Friday in Munich that Germany is the second most important trade partner of Ukraine, and the most important investor – if you don't count Cyprus, which, as he pointed out, has a special role. The German Economic Advisory Group has contributed its share in helping Ukraine with its ongoing economic transformation. Early-on German entrepreneurs used the existing opportunities and I am happy that some of those „early birds“ are present here tonight.

In 1998, the Ukrainian government returned St. Catherine's Church on Lutheranska street back to the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine. This was one of the important examples of a fruitful exchange in the sphere of culture, which also led to the restitution of national cultural heritage in both directions, the opening of a Goethe-Institut in Kiev and an ongoing exchange of university assistants and teachers.

In 1998, the visit of German President Roman Herzog was a political highlight marking the intensity of an ongoing high-level exchange. All German Chancellors have been here several times: Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel. She came as Minister in 1993 and 1995 and as Chancellor in 2008. In 2005, President Jushchenko, visiting Germany, had the honour to be invited to speak to the Bundestag.

In March 2000, the first German Honorary Consul was installed in Lviv . We have extended this network ever since with Honorary Consuls in Donezk, Odessa and last week in Simferopol. A Consulate General was set up in Donezk in 2009. At the same time we have seen partnerships develop between cities, schools, universities. Such contacts helped open „cultural embassies“ like the Bavarian House in Odessa, the House of Nürnberg in Charkiv oder the Center „Gedankendach“ in Chernivtsi.

In 2002, exactly 10 years ago, our then Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel opened this building. The new Embassy became a landmark of German presence in the centre of Kiev. By reuniting most of the Embassy's sections, we were able to more efficiently promote all spheres of our bilateral relations. Nevertheless, I have to say that even this building is too small to host the entire Consulate. The vast majority of about 2 million visas we have issued so far, were handed out on the premises in Zlatoustivska. But let's hope that the visa question will be solved in a not too distant future so that we eventually can concentrate all our efforts in one place.

In 2008 we opened the German School in Kiev, which is developing rapidly and which, in the long run, should lead to a German and Ukrainian highschool diploma. Over the last years the academic exchange has increased rapidly: Thousands of young Ukrainians are studying in Germany, thousands have so far received scholarships by DAAD.

When in 2009 we marked the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, we put up an element of the wall from Potsdamer Platz in front of the Embassy. We did so as a reminder of the developments which led to the reunification of Germany and Europe and opened the way to Ukraine's independence. But it should also remind us that we still have some way to go before Europe is united in a community of democratic and free market-economy states.

Ladies and gentlemen,

20 years is historically a short time, especially if we put them into context and take into account that relations between Kiev and German lands go back for more than 1000 years. But these last 20 years have been intensively used for creating multiple links between our countries, deepening the relations between Germans and Ukrainians as never before. Business interests, organisations of civil society, marriages, tourism, common values, sportspeople: everything seems to bring us together. And now this year we will have a great sports event – the football championship - which again shows how close we are, creating new bonds.

So should we be satisfied ?

I think we should not. We live in a different, ever accelerating world: 20 years ago the population of the world was much smaller than today, we hadn't even started to use emails yet, no mobile phones , no i-phones, i-pads...The Chinese dragon was still sleeping, the Arab revolutions were far away and the Euro was not even invented.

We have to address new challenges, and the question is not: „do we still have the right answers“, but „are the questions still right in a world which has changed“? And if we don't find the right answers, in Germany and in Ukraine, two big European countries that share a common interest in the future of our continent, then both our peoples will suffer.

Only an efficient, constantly developing industry and service sector will secure the wellfare of our countries, for economic dynamics are important, more important than the accumulation of capital and wealth. Only by a stronger integration into/of Europe, by forming the best young people and by moving more quickly, adjusting more quickly, will we be able to throw political dead weight overboard which binds us to the past.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am very happy that tonight we have the Vydubychi choir, also in its early 20s, to accompany our anniversary . My wife and I have time and again enjoyed their singing, combining Ukrainian cultural heritage with Orthodox spirituality and with vocal art which is so dear to Ukrainians and Germans alike. Amidst all the political and economic difficulties we face, we should never forget the hopeful sounds brought to us by music, not least by Ludwig von Beethoven calling on us to fullfill the utopia of a common, brotherly world.

А зараз дозвольте попросити Вас спочатку послухати наші обидва гарні національні гімни, їхні запальні слова, які закликають до свободи, єдності й верховенства права.