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According to former Federal President Joachim Gauck, Germany should learn from Polish history how freedom and democracy could be defended against new authoritarian threats and aggression from outside. He himself was influenced and grew up in a generation of peacefulness and is grateful for this. “We must not think that it is a special democratic culture to remain in a hope-based powerlessness,” Gauck emphasized at a reception to mark the Polish National Day at Poland's new embassy in Berlin. Instead, the Germans must recognize “— and the Poles must help us do so — that armed peacefulness is what protects and strengthens freedom and democracy.” In this context, the former head of state praised Warsaw's defense efforts.

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Gauck, who was a pastor during GDR times and representative for the Stasi archive office (Stasi-Unterlagenbehörde) after the fall of the Wall, emphasized the Poles' tremendous desire for freedom. The special relationship between the nation and the individual people on the subject of freedom was a special gift for him as a German in a country that valued security more than freedom. Poland's first constitution of May 3, 1791 was already characterized by the spirit of freedom. “This spirit of freedom is a central Polish contribution to the European idea.” After 1990, the anniversary of the adoption of the May Constitution once again became Poland's national holiday.

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One message from this early constitution, explained Polish Chargé d'affaires and designated ambassador Jan Tombinski, was: “The freedom to own is not enough; you have to regain and shape it again and again.” He assured that Poland, like the entire free world, remains firmly at Ukraine's side in the fight against Russia. The aggressor must be put under increased pressure to end the “criminal war.”

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Special care for relations with Poland will be at the top of the new federal government's agenda, said Thomas Bagger, State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office and Ambassador in Warsaw from 2022 to 2023. However, the first disagreements have already arisen because the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who was elected today, wants to significantly tighten border controls with the neighbouring country. His first trips abroad are scheduled to take him to France and Poland in the coming days.

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Poland is a tremendously optimistic country, and Germans should occasionally follow this example, said Bagger in his last public appearance as Secretary of State. As part of the change of government, he handed over his office on Tuesday to Geza Andreas von Geyr, previously Germany's representative to NATO and previously ambassador in Moscow. gd

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