Of the many stereotypes about Germany – our sense of humor, our spontaneity, our irresistible joie de vivre – only one is really true: We are good at keeping records.

So…44 and a half years ago, when the young Senator Joseph Biden came to Bonn, a German civil servant – ein guter Beamter, as we like to say – made a note, a rather extensive one I should say, of this senator’s visit.

And being Germans, you understand, we still have that note. An der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist er stark interessiert, that’s the main content. He is keenly interested in the Federal Republic of Germany, the note concludes and it adds that this Senator might look to a significant political future.

Significant? What a remarkable understatement. Today, you are the 46th President of the United States – and under your leadership, the transatlantic alliance is stronger and our partnership is closer than ever.

Mr. President, you are keenly interested in Germany – that we have known for almost half a century. So it is time for you to know that Germany, in turn, is deeply grateful to you! Let me say, in the name of my country: Thank you, Mr. President!

For Germany, the friendship with the United States has been, is now, and will always be existentially important – existential both for our security and our democracy.

And yet, in this friendship, there have been – and always will be – times of proximity and greater distance, times of agreement and times of discord. Even recently, just a handful of years ago, the distance had grown so wide that we almost lost each other. But, throughout the ups and downs of time, there have been people who have stood by the transatlantic relations no matter what. And chief among those people, Mr. President, is you!

You stand with us, Sir, because you know: that what binds us is so much deeper than the news of the day. What binds us is freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. What binds us is the conviction that, if liberal democracy is to have a future in this troubled world, we have to secure it together. And: what binds us are the lessons from our past – sacred lessons that you described so hauntingly in your letter to our beloved Margot Friedländer.

Sir, when you were elected President, you restored Europe’s hope in the transatlantic alliance literally overnight. And then, only one year later, came Putin’s war. When Putin invaded Ukraine, he didn’t just go after one country. He attacked the very principles of peace in Europe.

Putin thought we would be weak. He thought we would be divided. But the opposite was true: NATO was stronger and more united than ever – and that is in no small part, Mr. President, thanks to your leadership.

Mr. President: To have you – in our most dangerous moment since the Cold War – to have you and your administration on our side is no less than a historical stroke of good fortune. For us here in Europe, the past two years have shown once again: America truly is the indispensable nation. But it has also shown something else: NATO is the indispensable alliance.

So in the months to come, I hope that Europeans remember: America is indispensable for us. And I hope that Americans remember: Your allies are indispensable for you. We are more than just “other countries” – we are partners, we are friends.

The choice on November 5th is only Americans’ choice. But we as Europeans have a choice, too: we have the choice to do our part. To be unwavering in our support for Ukraine, to invest in our common security, to invest in our shared future – and, as you have done, Sir: to stand by the transatlantic alliance no matter what!

Mr. President, when I visited you in the Oval Office a year ago, on October 6th, just a few hours before Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel – we spoke about the Middle East, we spoke about Ukraine and Russia. But at the end. I will never forget that, at the end of our conversation, you went to your desk and handed me a speech of yours not on foreign policy – but on the issue that you care most about, and that you worry most about: our democracy.

Democracies don’t have to die at the end of a rifle, you say in that speech. Democracies can die when people are silent, when they […] are willing to give away that which is most precious to them because they feel frustrated, […] tired, alienated.

Your words, Mr. President, echo deeply in our part of the world, and they weigh even more heavily coming from the leader of the world’s oldest and most time-tested democracy.

So let me say this from the bottom of my heart: In this time, when democracy is under strain all around the Western world – you, Mr. President, have been a beacon of democracy. You are a beacon – not just by what you have done but by who you are! By the example of your humility, your deep connection with the lives and hopes of hard-working people, and if you excuse that old-fashioned word: by your decency!

Decency is maybe what we are most at risk of losing. But your decency, Sir, is a light that shines very far. It certainly reached the hearts of my fellow Germans. As U.S. President, you command the most powerful military, you lead the biggest economy in the world. But maybe the most precious service to democracy, the most joyful and reassuring thing for people is to know that even this most powerful man in the world is – in the end – a fundamentally decent human being.

Mr. President, we all know that you love your Irish poets, and that you know them well. I’ve heard you quote Seamus Heaney from memory, so I hope you allow me to end with a quote from his “Republic of Conscience”: At their inauguration, public leaders must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep to atone for their presumption to hold office.

The presumption to hold office. Mr. President, it seems that you have always had a deep sense of the inevitable presumption in holding office, including the highest office. In being elevated above others, in a society of equals. You have transformed this presumption into a deep sense of responsibility. And you have carried that responsibility throughout your career and have now decided, in the most noble tradition of American leaders since Washington, to let democracy run its ever-changing and uncharted course.

Mr. President, on the historic occasion of your visit to Germany, my country recognizes your decades-long dedication to the transatlantic alliance, your outstanding political leadership in Europe’s most dangerous moment, and your lasting moral example of service, sincerity, and decency.

It is now my great honor to bestow on you the Grand Cross special class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. And for that, Mr. President, may I say, dear Joe, congratulations!