And 25 years Fall of the Berlin Wall

By Heidi Trautmann

….The Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany

H.E. Nikolai von Schoepff and Mrs. Rita Lansley request the pleasure of your company

at a reception on Friday, October 3, 2014….

Hundreds of guests from both sides of the island followed the invitation, the yearly invitation to celebrate the Day of Reunification. The occasion was also the first appearance in public of the new Ambassador and his partner; in his welcoming speech he said that the German people after 40 years of separation have succeeded in establishing a new united strong state and have grown together.

He directed the words to the Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides who answered with a few welcoming and congratulating words.

I looked up the Ambassador’s curriculum vitae; it looks interesting: Born in Munich in 1959, he studied Modern History in Passau, Munich, Moscow, Berlin and London; obtained Master Degree of Arts at the Free University of Berlin; obtained Master of Philosophy at the University of Oxford; he entered the higher Foreign Service in 1991.

He arrived in Cyprus some days ago, directly from his post as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates where he did duty until 30.09.2014.

When we talked together he said that he has in mind to bring the great Daniel Barenboim to Cyprus, him and his project. The new Ambassador has obviously great plans for Cyprus.  We wish him luck and a successful time on the island.

The Director of the Goethe Institute, Björn Luley, who was also present, will leave us in January I heard. The Germany Embassy and the Goethe Institute are supporting two Greek Cypriot schools to learn the German language and those were invited to sing the German Anthem ….. ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt‘ .... They will need a bit more practicing but they did fine. Learning languages is very important.

The Day of Reunification had been celebrated before by bi-communal events organised by the Goethe Centre, in those days still under the leadership of Ute Stylianou Woermann; it was for the 20^th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall…..Many foam blocks of 2 sqm were painted on and poetry was written upon them by Greek and Turkish Cypriots and these blocks were sent to Berlin for the celebration in situ; for the celebration itself the artists were invited to join the festivities.

It really is a Day to stand up and remember with horror the years of separation and the joy when the wall came down and two brother countries were reunited.