The spoken record

Germany is too big merely to comment on world affairs from the sidelines.

At the 50th Munich Security Conference, weeks after his return to the Foreign Office, Steinmeier called for a more engaged German foreign policy, adding that "a culture of restraint for Germany must not become a culture of standing aloof." Together with speeches by President Gauck and Defence Minister von der Leyen, it became known as the "Munich consensus".

I wish I could say that we Germans have learnt from history once and for all. But I cannot say that when hatred is spreading.

Speaking at Yad Vashem to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he warned that "the spirits of evil are emerging in a new guise, presenting their antisemitic, racist, authoritarian thinking as an answer for the future."

In 1945 we were liberated. Today, we must liberate ourselves.

Reprising Richard von Weizsäcker's 1985 description of 8 May as a day of liberation, he called on Germans to free themselves from "the temptations of a new brand of nationalism", from a fascination with authoritarianism, and from hatred and hate speech. Planned ceremonies were scaled down because of the pandemic.

Harder years, rough years are coming upon us.

In an address to the nation after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he described 24 February as an "Epochenbruch" — an epochal break — and said that "an era of headwinds" was beginning for Germany, calling on citizens to strengthen what unites them.

I stand before you today and ask for your forgiveness for the crimes committed by Germans here.

The first German head of state to speak at the commemoration, he said the crimes filled him with "deep shame", and that "for us Germans, responsibility for our history has no end point."

I would like to ask for forgiveness for what Germans did to your ancestors here.

At the site commemorating the victims of the Maji Maji war of 1905–1907 against German colonial rule, he expressed shame and pledged to raise awareness of these crimes in Germany. Tanzanian commentators welcomed the apology while pressing for a discussion of reparations.

We have already lost democracy once in Germany.

On the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, he accused Russia of spreading historical lies to justify its war, described America's turn away from the post-war order as "a shock of a completely new scale", and warned: "We know where isolation leads, where aggressive nationalism and contempt for democratic institutions lead."