Impressions of Germany (April 20, 2010)

Impressions of Germany
Capital Club Breakfast
Berlin, April 20, 2010
Ambassador Philip D. Murphy

Herr Dr. Dürr, ich danke Ihnen für die Einladung, vor dem Capital Club zu sprechen.

Meine Damen und Herren, es ist mir eine Freude, bei Ihnen zu sein.

Botschafter Gunnarsson, es freut mich besonders, Sie hier zu sehen. Die ganze Welt blickt heute nach Island. Es wäre vermutlich interessanter, jetzt etwas von der isländischen Botschaft zu erfahren, als von der amerikanischen Botschaft.

Die isländischen Naturwunder, die dramatischen Bilder der Aschewolke und des aus der Erde hervortretenden Rauchs, machen ehrfürchtig und versetzen ins Staunen. Ihre Sprache ist auch erstaunlich. Ich werde gar nicht erst versuchen, den Namen des Vulkans auszusprechen, um den es dieser Tage in den Nachrichten geht. Die Fortschritte, die ich in den letzten Monaten im Deutschen gemacht habe, waren schon langsam genug.

[Thank you, Dr. Dürr, for the invitation to address the Capital Club.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a pleasure to meet you all.

Ambassador Gunnarsson, I am especially pleased to see you.  The eyes of the world are on Iceland these days.   I have the feeling that it might be more interesting to hear from the Embassy of Iceland than the Embassy of the United States. 

Iceland’s natural wonders – caught in the dramatic images of the plume of ash and smoke rising from the beneath the Earth's crust – are indeed cause for awe and wonder.  Your language is also cause for wonder.   I won’t even attempt to pronounce the name of the volcano that is at the center of the news these days.   My progress with the German language has been slow enough over the last eight months.]

When I returned to Germany last August to take up the post of Ambassador, one of my goals was obviously to improve my rusty German.  Others have complained about the German language.  I don’t know what Mark Twain would have had to say about “the awful Icelandic language.”  

My wife and I lived in Frankfurt for a number of years in the 1990s.  So apart from re-learning the language, inevitably I was also comparing the Germany I had known then to the Germany of today.   

The biggest difference is the way the German-American relationship has evolved from a bilateral relationship to a partnership that is deeply involved in finding solutions to the most important issues of the day.   This is America’s most important bilateral relationship – both from the historical perspective, looking back over the success story of modern diplomacy that has played out over the past 60 years – and from the very urgent perspective of today. 

The volcano in Iceland, Ambassador Gunnarsson, has shown us just how interconnected our world is — a world woven together by the crisscrossing of airline routes in this age of globalization.   Presumably, the volcano will simmer down.   The ash cloud will dissolve. Flights will resume. Business will begin to make up its losses.  Travelers will safely find their way home.  But there are lessons to be learned from this volcanic eruption.  When the last eruption took place almost 200 years ago, man-made flight was a distant dream.  A lot has happened since then.  Yet, in tectonic terms, the interval is nothing, a fraction of a blink to the volcano.  Anyone who sets their watch by geological time would never get out of bed but a glance at our world in proportion to the universe is perhaps useful on occasion.   Obviously Germany and the United States working together cannot control Mother Nature.  But consider, for example, how exercised we would all be if the equivalent disruption had been caused by the threat of a terror attack, or industrial or government error.

What Germany and the United States have done as strong, responsible partners working together has made measurable progress towards a world  in moving us towards a world that is safer and more secure –in the face of daunting global challenges.  There are some we cannot control – an erupting volcano in Iceland, earthquakes in China and Haiti.  In the face of natural catastrophe, we can make sure that we provide focused and fast assistance.

But we also face challenges that although they are difficult and complex, we can, indeed we must address.  Don’t worry.  I am not going to talk about them all this morning.  It would be lunchtime before we got to breakfast.  But last week Chancellor Merkel mentioned three broad areas in a speech she gave last week in California.  Since my job as Ambassador is to work closely with the German government, I think her list is a useful guidepost to the kind of issues I have been tracking over the past eight months.
 
First, the Chancellor spoke about security and the common responsibility that nations share in building a world that is safer and more secure.  A year ago in Prague, President Obama announced his commitment to a world without those weapons.  This is a goal that may not be achieved in our lifetimes but over the course of the past weeks, we have made some very important steps.  It is clear that nuclear weapons pose a very different threat, in many ways much more grave than during the Cold War.  These negotiations have a broad range of consequences.  They affect our newly “re-set” relationship with Russia and the parameters of our new global relationship with China, one of the world’s fastest growing economies.  The international negotiations regarding nuclear weapons have also had major repercussions on the position regarding Iran’s nuclear program, namely that all states, including Iran, have the same rights and the same responsibilities.   Germany has been an important partner for the United in all of these discussions and negotiations. 

The theme of freedom and responsibility ran throughout the Chancellor’s speech.   Security, she said, is the prerequisite so that we can live in freedom.  For that reason, she said it is essential that it is in our collective interest to help other countries on the path to peace and prosperity – countries such as Afghanistan. 

In January, I had the opportunity to visit Afghanistan as a guest of the Bundeswehr and the German Ministry of Defense.    I will never forget this trip.  I will remember watching countless Afghan children run to the side of the road to wave when the Bundeswehr vehicles drove by -- and the smiles on Bundeswehr faces knowing that they were doing something with meaning.  And General Murat Ali-Murat, Commander of the 209th Corps of the Afghan National Army, telling me that he has the greatest confidence in his Bundeswehr colleagues, along with his tremendous thanks for the mentoring and partnership they provide his troops.  These memories inspire me and I will keep them close.

I was deeply moved by the commitment and professionalism of the German soldiers I met.   Every one of them is aware of the risks he or she is taking.  One comment that I heard from several German soldiers, was that they felt that their countrymen did not appreciate fully their efforts.   None of the soldiers I spoke to asked for thanks, only for greater understanding and support for their mission at home.  One German Colonel who had already finished a month of service told me: “I arrived optimistic, and now, I’m even more optimistic.”  German soldiers in the Hindu Kush are proud of their efforts to produce a more stable future for Afghanistan.  And they should be.

Every single German soldier I talked to supported and understood General McChrystal’s population-centric approach and partnering with the Afghan national security forces.   General McChrystal is in Berlin today – he came in on a bus yesterday evening from Paris -- for discussions with the German government about the mission in Afghanistan.  Germany’s contribution is valuable.   It is much appreciated.  

Chancellor Merkel also spoke of the importance of multilateral cooperation not just in security defense, but also on economic issues.  Back in September, we were still grappling with the consequences of the economic crisis.  We have a long way to go, but markets have risen by 75 percent over the last year.  The economy has begun to produce jobs again.   Despite a drop in German-U.S. trade of almost 25% in 2009 over 2008, trade flows are slowly returning to pre-crisis levels. The United States is still Germany’s largest trading partner outside the EU and the third important trading partner overall.  Germany’s exports to the U.S. are still more than one third higher than German exports to China.  Germany remains the U.S.'s most important trading partner in the EU.  And, I hope with our parallel efforts – the National Export Initiative (NEI) and the German Aussenwirtschaftsinitiative -- our trade will flourish in the years ahead.  This is not about a zero sum game, but rather about economic growth that will benefit both of us.   We are moving in the right direction along the road to recovery that the Obama administration has mapped out in the United States and Chancellor Merkel here in Germany.  

The third item on the Chancellor’s list was energy and climate change.   A successful climate policy is to quote the Chancellor, “a peace policy for the world." The protection of our climate will be a central test of how and if we can, as free and developed societies, bring about freedom, solidarity and partnership across continents. 

Both of our countries have led the way in terms of innovation and invention over the last century.  Both Germany and the United States have been leaders in environmental innovation for decades.   Germany has been particularly successful in “greening” its economy, especially when it comes to reducing CO2 emissions and promoting renewable energies.    But it is clear that we must do more.  The world is in greater peril than ever before.  President Obama describes climate change, as “one of the defining challenges of our time.”  It also presents great opportunity – in fact unprecedented opportunities to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future.   We are at an important turning point. 

Tomorrow, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day – and the start of the modern environmental movement.  Let me tell you how I am going to celebrate Earth Day – with a webchat with a corps of young Green Ambassadors that we have created in Germany. 
Green Ambassadors are young German alumni of State Department exchange programs.  These Green Ambassadors were chosen because of their environmental consciousness, their concern about the consequences of climate change and their willingness to take a proactive role in offsetting those effects.

My wife Tammy has worked for many years with Al Gore’s Climate Protection Action Fund.  We told Al about this program and he gave us a special message to pass on to these young people. “I am so inspired,” he wrote,” by your commitment to become educated about the environment—and in turn to share this knowledge in your own communities.  This public service is vital if we are to help solve the climate crisis.  Thank you all so much for your efforts.”  This message is particularly meaningful because Al Gore himself was inspired to go into public service because of the efforts of Senator Gaylord Nelson who started the Earth Day tradition back in 1970.

That brings me to my final point.  In the past eight months, I have not only been learning German, tracking what the German government has to say, and cheering on Hertha.

I have also been speaking with young people around this country.  I have been doing town halls around Germany. My goal is to engage these young people so that they are also just as convinced in the benefits and value of our partnership as somebody who experienced the Airlift, President Kennedy’s visit to Berlin, or the fall of the Berlin Wall. They are the generation that will seek and find the solutions to the challenges of the 21st century.  When I speak to young people, I try to communicate the sense of opportunity and responsibility that did indeed make the German-American partnership the success story of modern diplomacy, as I said earlier.   My long-term goal – and those who know me, know that I am a big supporter of long-term goals – would be that when this generation looks back to these challenging times at the start of the 21st century, they will be able to say that we all – their generation and ours – did our part to make this world more peaceful.

Meine sehr geehrten Damen und Herren, vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit!