As prepared for delivery.

Naturalization Ceremony
Ambassador William R. Timken, Jr.
Berlin, October 31, 2008

Welcome to Berlin, and welcome to this first naturalization ceremony in the new U.S. Embassy.   And welcome to the members of the U.S. military forces and their families. 

Today a number of members of the U.S. military and military family members will be sworn in as U.S. citizens.  Today's ceremony will be a milestone in your lives. You entered this new building as citizens of other nations. You will leave as Americans. 

I note that a number of you being sworn in today are German citizens.  As America’s Ambassador to Germany, one aspect of my job is the promotion of strong relations between Germany and the United States.  There are perhaps no clearer expressions of the strength of German-American relations than the history of German immigration to America and naturalization.  I myself am the beneficiary of such German immigration to the United States, and, therefore, I take special pleasure in witnessing those who are naturalizing today.

In a few moments, Mrs. Carty-Pratt will administer the oath for you to become citizens of the United States of America.  As part of the ceremony you will promise to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  This isn't going to be the first time many of you have made such a promise. You in the military took a similar oath when you joined.  Your presence here bears witness that you have kept your word so that others might be free. You are performing the most obvious responsibility of citizenship, even now as non-U.S. citizens, namely the defense of the United States: our freedoms, our rights, our nation.

Through the generations, our nation has remained strong and free because men and women put on our uniform and defended these beliefs.  

Our new Embassy is testament to what America stands for.  It certainly was not easy to bring this Embassy to this place at the Brandenburg Gate, just yards away from where President Ronald Reagan called upon the Soviet Union to tear down the Wall that divided a city, a country, and a continent.   But it is absolutely fitting that we are here, back where we were before World War II.  This Embassy is testament to the fact that, indeed, nothing is impossible.

Last June, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the new Embassy.  She recalled her first visit to Berlin back in 1983.  Then, Berlin was the epicenter of the Cold War.  Today, it is the epicenter of a world in which our shared values of freedom and democracy have triumphed, in which East and West have been united in Europe.  Our Embassy proves, as the Secretary said, that “freedom doesn’t die easily…  It lives in the hearts of men and women.  It can be delayed for a while, but it can never be fully denied.”

This is a proud day for all of us here at the Embassy – and it's a proud day for our nation. Today, we will gain new citizens, citizens who know the cost of freedom and are willing to pay that cost so others can live free.  Congratulations.  Thank you for your service.