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Selected Speeches and Articles (2011 – present)

Selected speeches in German can be found here. Speeches from President Köhler’s terms in office are available through the Office of the Federal President.

2023

Keynote Address

Berlin Model United Nations 2023, John F. Kennedy School
Berlin, 17 November 2023

„I think it is both time and fully in the spirit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to further develop the Social Market Economy into a Social and Ecological Market Economy.“

„Homecoming to a Foreign Place“

Dinner on the occasion of the 80th birthday of former Federal President Prof. Dr. Horst Köhler at the invitation of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Mrs. Elke Büdenbender

Berlin, Schloss Bellevue, 6 March 2023

“I live my life in widening circles...”

2022

“German guilt imposes responsibility to this very day”

Memorial ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the expulsion of inhabitants of the Zamość region

Skierbieszów, 27 November 2022

„[But] there will only be a strong Europe if there is a strong German-Polish partnership. Let us work resolutely – and happily – together to move this partnership forward! It is the surest guarantee for what so many generations before us desired: peace, freedom and prosperity for all, in Poland, in Germany, in the whole of Europe.“

Freedom, Togetherness, Vigilance

Awarding of the International Prize of the Friedrich August von Hayek Foundation to Prime Ministers Ingrida Šimonytė, Kaja Kallas and Krišjānis Kariņš
Berlin, 4 September 2022

"We are bound to the Baltic nations by a shared love of freedom and a sense of belonging together. Let us also be united by vigilance, foresight and fortitude."

2nd African German Young Leaders (AGYLE) Program

Video greeting
Berlin, 27 June 2022

“History, geographical proximity and their respective interests make Africa and Europe predestined partners in the 21st century.”

“Africa-Europe Partnership in the century of change”

Opening remarks former German Federal President Horst Köhler in conversation with members of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation “Now Generation Network”
Berlin, 15 February 2022

“Africa is no longer looking only to Europe. It has options. But I still believe that history, geographical proximity and their respective interests make Africa and Europe predestined partners in this century of change!”

2020

“New Ways of Thinking and Acting in the Vertical – What Is Needed for a Substantially New Partnership between Europe and Africa”

Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC)
Host: German Bundestag in cooperation with the Bundesrat on 1 December 2020
(live by video from the German Bundestag)
Berlin, 1 December 2020

"We Europeans must finally recognise where African interests converge with ours in the long term – and where they thus entail shared responsibility."

“Never give up on forging trust and alliances”

Opening speech Annual Policy Dialogue „Multilateralism that delivers“of the World Leadership Alliance Club de Madrid

Berlin, 28 October 2020

"Multilateralism is more than a means to an end. It is a principle. Its vision is one of global dialogue, even with reluctant players and across all different interests, values or systems, in order to build trust and thus lay the most important foundation for cooperation. The United Nations remains the center for this."

“Africa and Europe: a chance for a new start?”

German Africa Foundation in cooperation with the Federation of German Industries
Berlin, 30 September 2020

"Europe must adopt an attitude that finally comprehends Africa as an independent political subject, with its own visions and its own responsibility, with its own desire to act and its own options. Europe must also understand the “substantially new partnership” with Africa as one where there is a need for mutually dependent political change and action on both sides."

Not just research on Africa, but research with Africa

Video Statement for the opening of the Africa Centre for Transregional Research
Freiburg, 4 May 2020

"We still know, hear and understand far too little about Africa – and thereby miss out on a great deal. No other continent will play a more crucial role for the future of Europe than Africa. With no other continent are more asymmetries becoming apparent, and more potential within those asymmetries – both for good and for ill."

“Never give up”

Acceptance speech on being awarded the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal of Honour
Berlin, 10 March 2020

“However, a return to nationalism and self-isolation would undoubtedly be the wrong answer, a misguided course. What we need now is, above all, a stronger United Nations as well as the resolute implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Climate Agreement.”

2017

Citizenship in a Global Age – Personal Reflections on a Political Conundrum

Speech at the University of Notre Dame
Indiana, Notre Dame, 6 September 2017

“It’s up to each and every one of us – as individual citizens, as voters, as consumers, as professionals, as friends – to make decisions, each and every day, which are responsible. Nobody is a saint, and we all have our share of contradictions, and yet we live in the best of times, with unprecedented physical comfort and health, and so we shouldn’t shy away too easily from confronting the responsibilities that come from living in this global age.”

G20 meeting with African Heads of States

Dinner Statement
Berlin, 12 June 2017

“I believe that the time has come to make a vision come true – the vision of building solid financial bridges between the ageing, savings-heavy countries of the North and the young, investment-hungry societies in the South.”

Trust and truthfulness: thoughts on political leadership in an interdependent age

Keynote Speech Mo Ibrahim Foundation Ceremony
Marrakesh, Morocco, 7 April 2017

“What can leaders do to gain trust? Be truthful. It’s so ridiculously simple, and yet somehow we have all gotten used to the cynical idea that truthfulness is detrimental to successful political leadership.”

Countering the narrative of decline: the great transformation as a global story of hope

Speech at the 6th International Convention of Environmental Laureates
Freiburg, Germany, 9 March 2017

“What we see is not carnage, but promise, what pushes us forward is not fear, but curiosity, what we aspire to is not confrontation, but cooperation. The great transformation can give direction in times of disorientation.”

Young, smart and ambitious

Africa’s progress is a global common good. Investment in its future is a matter of security – and economic opportunity
Article for ‘The Security Times’ on the occasion of the 53rd Munich Security Conference
1 March 2017

“Europe, Africa’s closest neighbor, has a special responsibility – and opportunity – to spur investments and boost the private sector, to strongly support regional integration and to strengthen the African Peace and Security Architecture.”

2015

The end of humankind’s dream? The United Nations in the 21st century

Address given at the official ceremony hosted by the United Nations Association of Germany to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations
(Translated from the original German)
Berlin, Germany, 21 October 2015

“Anyone scrutinising the United Nations cannot fail to see both promise and disillusionment, heaven and abyss. The United Nations mirrors humankind with all its failings and all its potential. These contradictions, the propensity for both good and evil, the altruism and the egotism, are the very core of our humanity.”

Partnership reloaded: how the post-2015 agenda could transform Africa’s relationship with the industrialized world

Keynote Speech at the 15th OECD International Economic Forum on Africa
Berlin, Germany, 9 September 2015

“The universal ambition of the SDGs is also an exercise in humility: nobody has all the answers. We are all in search of solutions.”

Reflections on German-African relations

Dinner Speech, African Rhapsody
Berlin, Germany, 9 June 2015

“I believe that German-African relations have made great progress, compared to where we stood 10 or 20 years ago. We are ready now to move to a higher level. We are ready to ask each other the tough questions.”

Statement: „European integration as a lesson learnt after World War II. What does it mean today?

Center of European Solidarity
Gdańsk, Poland, 7 May 2015

“Europe is the promise that compromise, not confrontation, that responsibility, not national selfishness, that cooperation, not aggression lead to peace and prosperity.”

What lies ahead for the West?

Speech at the ‘Future of the West’ conference held by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
(Translated from the original German)
Bonn, Germany, 14 January 2015

“What does it befit the West to do? The first thing I would say is to act with humility. Too often in the past (up to our times), the West has failed to live up to its ideals.”
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