Merz wants 'new start' for Germany, 35 years on from reunification

Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday called for a "new start" for Germany in a keynote speech as political leaders marked the 35th anniversary of the country's reunification.

"After 35 years of German unity and at a difficult time for our country, we should regroup and look to the future with confidence and vigour," said Merz at a ceremony in the western city of Saarbrücken, with French President Emmanuel Macron among those in attendance.

"Let us make a joint effort for a new unity in our country," Merz added.

People should have the confidence to embrace change and not allow themselves to be paralysed by fear, he argued.

"Let's dare to make a new start," said the chancellor. "Let's remember the confidence with which our East German compatriots dared to set out 35 years ago."

In his speech, Merz briefly looked back on the courage of the people in the former socialist East Germany during the peaceful revolution in 1989, which resulted in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the country on October 3, 1990.

The chancellor described the anniversary - a national holiday marked as German Unity Day - as a "day of celebration."

But he also recalled mutual misunderstandings among residents of the newly reunified nation and highlighted the painful experiences of many eastern Germans in the 1990s.

Decisive time for Germany

Merz argued that the anniversary comes at a "decisive moment" for Germany. "Our nation is in the middle of an important, perhaps decisive phase in its recent history."

He pointed to new alliances between autocracies, the digital revolution and the new global economy with trade barriers.

"A lot has to change if things are to remain as good or even get better as they are in our country," Merz warned.

Germany wants to remain a democratic, constitutional, economically strong and socially responsible country, as well as a European country, he said.

The chancellor made an appeal for Germans to take responsibility for growing threats to defence by volunteering for military service. He also backed reforms to the welfare state, the take-up of new technologies and an end to state "nannying." 

But decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the consequences of reunification are still heavily contested. The continuing discrepancies between eastern and western regions were laid bare by the results of February's parliamentary elections, which saw the far right make significant gains across eastern states.

Merz is also heading to eastern Germany in the evening for a concert in Halle an der Saale. It is part of a series of choral events held simultaneously in villages and towns nationwide, recalling the prayers and peaceful revolution of 1989.