    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [May 13, 1998]
    [Pages 750-753]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the People of Germany in Berlin
    May 13, 1998

        Thank you very much, Mr. President,
    Chancellor Kohl, to the leaders and members of
    the Bundestag and Bundesrat, members of the Cabinet, members of the
    diplomatic corps, Professor Schneider, and
    all the people who have made us feel so welcome here at the beautiful
    Schauspielhaus. Let me begin by thanking the German Symphony Orchestra
    for playing one of my favorite pieces, the ``Eroica.'' You were
    wonderful. Thank you very much.
        Mr. Mayor, thank you for your remarks.
    And Chancellor, thank you for all that you said.
        I am delighted to join all of you in the historic heart of free and
    unified Berlin. Fifty years ago the United States and its allies made a
    commitment to the people of Berlin. It began with the heroic airlift of
    1948, continued through the showdown with Soviet tanks at Checkpoint
    Charlie in 1961, and includes nearly 100,000 American soldiers who
    defended this city over the course of 40 years and grew to love its
    people.
        It lasted until East Germans bravely reached out across the wall and
    tore it down, thus freeing all of us to make real a Europe we had only
    dreamed of, an undivided continent of thriving democracies where states
    deal with each other not through domination but dialog; where societies
    are governed not by repression but by the rule of law; where the only
    barriers people face are the limits of their own dreams. Today, Berlin
    is a symbol of what all Europe is striving to become.
        Former Chancellor Willy Brandt, who was mayor of West Berlin on the
    day the wall went up, declared on that magical November night as the
    wall was coming down, ``Es wachst zusammen was zusammen gehort''--``what
    belongs together is growing together.'' You have shown, citizens of
    Berlin, that he was correct. From the construction on the Spree turning
    Berlin into Germany's capital for the future to the renewal of
    Potsdammer Platz as a dynamic center of business, Berlin's rebirth
    embodies all our hopes for the future. And from Munich to Potsdam, from
    Hamburg to Dresden, people throughout Germany's old and new states have
    struggled and sacrificed to make the larger dream of German unity come
    true. Now, barely 600 days before the beginning of a new century and a
    new millennium, we must make unity our mission for the Continent as a
    whole and for a new transatlantic community.
        For more than 1,000 years, from the time of Charlemagne to the
    founding of the European Community, a unified Europe has captured this
    continent's imagination. Now, for the first time, the dream is within
    reach, and not through conquest but through the decision of free people.
        In 1994 I came to Europe to support your unity and to set forth a
    vision of partnership between America and a new Europe, rooted in
    security cooperation, free markets, and vibrant democracies. I asked all
    our countries to adapt our institutions for the new time, to help the
    new market economies of Europe's eastern half to thrive, to support the
    growth of freedom and the spread of peace, to bring the peoples of the
    Euro-Atlantic community more closely together.
        On all fronts, we have made remarkable progress. NATO is taking on
    new missions and new members, building practical ties with Russia and
    Ukraine, deepening cooperation among the

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    44 nations of the Partnership Council. The European Union is growing,
    and America and the EU are working together to tear down more trade
    barriers and strengthen new democracies. The OSCE, Europe's standard
    bearer for human rights and freedoms, is now helping to make those
    standards real, from supervising elections in Albania to monitoring arms
    reduction in Bosnia.
        With support from America and the European Union and especially with
    Chancellor Kohl and Germany's farsighted
    leadership, new market economies are taking root all across this
    continent. Russia has privatized more property than any nation in this
    century. Poland and Estonia are among Europe's fastest growing
    economies. Since 1991, U.S. and EU investment in Central and Eastern
    Europe has quadrupled and trade has doubled.
        We've encouraged Europe's newly freed nations from helping citizens
    groups in the New Independent States to monitor their elections to
    strengthening the independence of their judicial systems. In Russia
    alone, thousands of civic groups are beginning to take a role in shaping
    the destiny of this century. President Yeltsin
    has a new government of young reformers, fully capable of leading Russia
    decisively into the future.
        We have helped to make the peace take hold from Bosnia to Northern
    Ireland. Every day our ordinary citizens work to link our nations
    together, from sister cities such as Leipzig and Houston, to American
    students flocking to all European countries, to young Romanians and
    Bulgarians now enrolled in our military academies.
        With all of this progress, as the Chancellor noted, many challenges
    still remain to our common vision: the ongoing struggles of newly free
    nations to consolidate their reforms; the unfinished work of bringing
    Europe's eastern half fully into our transatlantic community; the fear
    of those who lack the skills to succeed in the fast-changing global
    economy; the voices of hatred, intolerance, and division on both sides
    of the Atlantic, whether masked in patriotism, cloaked in religious
    fervor, or posing as ethnic pride; Bosnia's fragile peace; Kosovo's
    volatility; Cyprus' stalemate; the dangers that all our nations face and
    cannot defeat alone--the spread of weapons of mass destruction,
    organized crime, environmental degradation.
        And so my friends, 1998, no less than 1989, demands our boldness,
    our will, and our unity. Today I call on our nations to summon the
    energy and the will to finish the work we have started, to keep at it
    until every nation on the Continent enjoys the security and democracy we
    do and all men and women, from Seattle to Paris to Istanbul to St.
    Petersburg, are able to pursue their dreams in peace and build an even
    better life for their children.
        This is the opportunity of generations. Together, we must seize it.
    We must build a Europe like Germany itself, whole and free, prosperous
    and peaceful, increasingly integrated, and always globally engaged.
        If you will forgive me a personal observation based on my service in
    the last 5\1/2\ years, I must note that this magic moment in history did
    not simply arrive. It was made, and made largely by the vision and
    determined leadership of Germany and its Chancellor for 9 years.
        Consider the historic changes you have wrought. You committed
    Germany again to lead in a united Europe--this time through cooperation,
    not conquest. You took the risk of pushing for the European Monetary
    Union, knowing there would be bumps along the way, especially with the
    strength of the deutsche mark and the power of your own economy. You
    shouldered the enormous cost of your own reunification to make sure the
    East is not left behind and to ease as much as possible the unavoidable
    dislocation and pain that goes along with this process.
        And you have done this while also taking on the challenge that West
    Germany must face in making a difficult transition to a global economy,
    in which preserving opportunity for all and preserving the social
    contract is a challenge even for the wealthiest nations, as we see in
    America every day. All this you have attempted to do, and largely
    achieved, in 9 short years.
        Though many German citizens may be uncertain of the outcome and may
    not yet feel the benefits of your farsighted, courageous course, you are
    clearly on the right side of history. America honors your vision and
    your achievements, and we are proud to march with you, shoulder-to-
    shoulder, into the new millennium. We thank you.
        We begin our common journey with one basic premise: America stands
    with Europe. Today, no less than 50 years ago, our destinies are joined.
    If Europe is at peace, America is more

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    secure. If Europe prospers, America does as well. We share a common
    destiny because we move to a logic of mutually beneficial
    interdependence, where each nation can grow stronger and more prosperous
    because of the success of its neighbors and friends. Therefore, we
    welcome Europe's march toward greater unity. We seek a transatlantic
    partnership that is broad and open in scope, where the benefits and
    burdens are shared, where we seek a stable and peaceful future not only
    for ourselves but for all the world. We begin with our common security
    of which NATO is the bedrock.
        Next year the leaders of countries across Europe will gather in
    Washington to celebrate NATO's 50 years of success, to welcome the first
    new democracies from Eastern Europe as members, to keep NATO's door open
    to others as they are ready to assume the responsibilities of
    membership, to chart a course for the century ahead with threats more
    diffuse but no less dangerous than those our founders faced.
        Yesterday's NATO guarded our borders against direct military
    invasion. Tomorrow's alliance must continue to defend enlarged borders
    and defend against threats to our security from beyond them: the spread
    of weapons of mass destruction, ethnic violence, regional conflict. NATO
    must have the means to perform these tasks. And we must maintain and
    strengthen our partnership with Russia, with Ukraine, with other nations
    across the Continent who share our interests, our values, and our
    dreams.
        Advancing security also requires us to work for peace, whether in
    Northern Ireland, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kosovo, Bosnia, or Cyprus, to stand
    against intolerance and injustice as much as military aggression. For
    racism and inequality have no place in the future we are building
    together. We must fight them at home and abroad.
        Second, we must do more to promote prosperity throughout our
    community. Transatlantic commerce, as the Chancellor said, is already
    the largest economic relationship in the world, encompassing more than
    half a trillion U.S. dollars each year, supporting millions of jobs in
    both America and Europe.
        Consider this: America's investment in Europe roughly equals that in
    all the rest of the world put together. And Europe's investment in
    America has now created so many jobs that one of 12 U.S. factory workers
    is employed by a European-owned firm.
        Still, we must face the stark fact that prosperity is not yet
    everyone's partner. Europe's new democracies confront the daunting
    challenge of transition to market economies in an age of globalization,
    which, as I have already said, makes it more difficult to preserve
    equality of opportunity, a strong social safety net, and a general sense
    of fairness. We must continue to help these struggling countries, even
    as those of us in wealthier nations confront our own challenges on these
    fronts.
        America will continue to support Europe's march toward integration.
    We admire the determination that has made your economic and monetary
    union possible, and we will work with you to make it a success. We will
    continue to encourage your steps to enlarge the EU as well, eventually
    to embrace all central Europe and Turkey.
        Our third task is to strengthen the hand and extend the reach of
    democracy. One important tool is the OSCE. Its broad membership projects
    a unity and moral authority unparalleled on the Continent. Today, the
    OSCE is taking action on the ground from advancing human rights in the
    Balkans to supporting democratic institutions in Belarus.
        At next year's OSCE summit, we should encourage even greater
    engagement in the areas where democracy's roots are still fragile, in
    the Balkans and central Asia and the Caucasus, and we must develop
    practical new tools for the OSCE, such as training police to support
    peacekeeping missions and dispatching democracy teams to build more open
    societies. Only in this way can we deter and defuse crises that threaten
    our values and our securities before they get out of hand.
        Now, the secure, the free, the prosperous Atlantic community we
    envision must include a successful, democratic Russia. For most of this
    century fear, tyranny, and isolation kept Russia from the European
    mainstream. But look at the future Russians are now building, and we
    have an enormous stake in their success. Russia is literally recreating
    itself, using the tools of openness and reform to strengthen new freedom
    and restrain those who abuse them, to ensure more competition, to
    collect taxes, fight crime, restructure the military, prevent the spread
    of sensitive technologies. We must support this Russian revolution.
        We will redouble our efforts with Russia to reduce our nuclear
    arsenals, to lower the limits

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    on conventional forces in Europe, to fight the spread of materials and
    technology for weapons of mass destruction, to build a partnership with
    NATO in practical ways that benefit all of us, to develop the ties
    between our people that are the best antidote to mistrust. And we must
    not forget Ukraine, for it, too, has the opportunity to reach both east
    and west and be a great force for Europe's peace, prosperity, and
    stability. We should encourage reform and support it. The moment in
    Ukraine is historic, and it is not a moment to lose.
        Our fourth and final task is strengthening our global cooperation.
    Let us make common cause of our common concerns, standing together
    against threats to our security from states that flout international
    norms to the conflict brewing in Kosovo, from deterring terrorists and
    organized criminals to helping Asia restore financial stability, from
    helping Africa to join the global economy to combating global warming.
    In a world grown smaller, what happens beyond our borders touches our
    daily lives at home. America and Europe must work together to shape this
    world.
        Now, as we pursue this agenda, there will be times when we disagree.
    But occasional lack of consensus must never result in lasting cracks in
    our cohesion. Nor should the quest for consensus lure us into the
    easiest, lowest common denominator solution to difficult, high-urgency
    problems. When the world needs principled, effective, strong leadership,
    we must rise to the responsibility.
        These are our challenges. They are ambitious, but attainable. They
    demand of nations constant unity of purpose and commitment, and they
    require the support and the courage of our citizens. For without the
    courage of ordinary people, the wall would not have come down, and the
    new Europe would not be unfolding. Now it falls to each of us to write
    the next chapter of this story, to build up from what has been taken
    down, to cement together what is no longer walled apart, to repair the
    breaches that still exist among our peoples, to build a Europe that
    belongs together and grows together in freedom.
        Our success in this endeavor will make the new century the greatest
    that Germany, America, Europe, and the world have ever known. This is an
    effort worthy of the rich legacy of Berlin, the visionary leadership of
    modern Germany, and the enormous obligation we share for our children's
    future. Let us embrace it with gratitude, joy, and determination.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:30 p.m. in the Schauspielhaus. In his
    remarks, he referred to President Roman Herzog of Germany; Professor
    Frank Schneider, director, Berlin Schauspielhaus; and Mayor Eberhard
    Diepgen of Berlin.