In February 1787, a young man travelled to Naples and thence onwards to Sicily. According to his papers, he went by the name Milleroff. When he returned to Rome four months later, he had his passport issued with his actual name: Giovanni de Goethe di Weimar.
I believe that this small detail was no coincidence – far from it. On his trip to Italy, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was emerging from an artistic crisis and finding his feet again. And he is thus perhaps the first in a long line of Germans who would claim that it was only through their encounters with Italy that they became who they were.
Mr President, Sergio, I am pleased that, at the beginning of your state visit, I was able to present you with the facsimile of Goethe’s two Italian passports as a little gift today. They are, I find, a very special symbol of the centuries of attraction and ties between our two countries. Few countries have influenced Germany, our culture, our way of life, as much as Italy.
Our profound friendship has shaped us. This applies to many of my fellow Germans – and to me personally. I am grateful especially to you, Sergio, for our friendship, for your openness and for our regular exchange. You impress me time and again with the incorruptibility of your analyses, the clarity of your positions and a compass that always and stalwartly points towards Europe. We are delighted that you are here today. Welcome to this state visit, and welcome to Schloss Bellevue!
You have also enjoyed close links with Germany for many years now, Mr President. Your, our shared, passion for constitutional law took you to Germany for the first time in the late 1970s, to West Berlin, to be more precise. You set out across the Alps to attend a legal conference, taking the same path previously trodden by hundreds of thousands of Italians who had come to Germany to work some 20 years before – many of whom, fortunately for us, stayed.
Back then, in the late 1970s, Germany was still a divided country, and nowhere was this more palpable than here in Berlin. You took a trip to East Berlin at the time and were – so I have heard – shocked by the agonising formalities at the border crossings and by the brutality of a wall running right through the city. This year, we are celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Peaceful Revolution. What great fortune that we were able to overcome the division of our country. And we will not forget that Italy stood closely by our side on the path towards reunification.
A few years later, you travelled to western Germany once again, to Munich and Karlsruhe. Perhaps that gave you an inkling as to how the Germans were becoming ever more Italian – first and foremost in the culinary department. Maybe we were not yet able to keep up with Italy in terms of dolce vita and spontaneity, but people took to drinking cappuccino with whipped cream with their pizza at any rate. I would even go so far as to say that the gradual Italianisation of German cuisine, after the initial getting used to new things, has done us nothing but good.
Even behind the Iron Curtain, where there were no Italian guest workers, things began to stir. Chef Doris Burneleit fought for five years to open the first – and only – trattoria in the GDR with the Fioretto restaurant in Köpenick in 1987. Italian ingredients were not available, so Edam wrapped in white wine cloths before being dried in the chimney had to stand in for Parmesan, while milk quark replaced ricotta. When real buffalo cheese from Brandenburg and salsiccia from Swabian-Hall swine are fêted at one of Berlin’s celebrated trattorias today, the impulse is the same as it was decades ago: we are making Italy our own – no matter the cost!
After reunification, we opened up a new chapter together. Italian opera and Berlin’s techno scene have since been inscribed on the list of intangible cultural heritage. Together, we are working to ensure that Europe grows together. Together, we are tackling the crises of our age, even where they sometimes threaten to divide us. I am thinking here of the euro and financial crisis, the pandemic and questions of displacement and migration. The desire for connection and exchange is so strong because the German-Italian friendship has become such a natural part of people’s everyday lives. The Germans no longer just yearn for Italy but are also better acquainted with the country these days. And, by the same token, a new place of longing has emerged for young people from Italy like Claudia and Francesco, the “Spatriati” from the novel by Mario Desiati: All she talked to me about was her new city. Berlin. Berlin. Berlin.
sighs Francesco with a mixture of curiosity and defiance.
In many respects, we have become more alike over the past decades – as you might expect with good friends. Only when it comes to the punctuality of trains do we Germans perhaps still have some catching up to do. Time and again, in discovering the other, we have brought out the best in ourselves. This applies to our savoir vivre, culture and doing business, to be sure. But – Mr President, esteemed guests – this also goes to the heart of our identity. We are looking to Europe together, and together we are looking back into the abyss of our history. When on Sunday we join together for an act of remembrance in Marzabotto, where Germans perpetrated atrocious massacres during the Second World War, when you extend a hand to us in the face of such horrors, then that is a great gesture of reconciliation and of friendship. I am grateful for this friendship, which has helped Germany to find its feet. As a country that shoulders responsibility for the future of Europe – and as a country that is conscious of its responsibility for the horrors of the past.
Can there be any better argument for Europe than German-Italian relations? We experience each and every day how inspiring and enriching partnership can be, how something new and shared can emerge from our differences, and how valuable open borders and contact between people are. I am delighted to have you, Mr President, by my, by our, side as a champion of a strong Europe.
Last year, I had the privilege of visiting Italy’s President in his home region of Sicily. Since then, I have understood Goethe’s famous statement that you have to know Sicily in order to comprehend Italy. Here is the key to all,
he wrote.
Today it is difficult to find the key to all
. And yet I believe that one key to understanding my country certainly lies in Italy. Without your friendship, Germany would be a different, doubtlessly a poorer country.
With this in mind, I would like to invite you to join me in a toast to my friend Sergio Mattarella, to his daughter Laura and to the friendship between our two countries. Viva l’amicizia tra Italia e Germania!
