“Remembering for the Future” – This is the motto of an exhibition organised jointly by the Federal Foreign Office and the German War Graves Commission to be opened in the Atrium of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on Monday, 10 March, by Minister of State Michael Roth. The President of the German War Graves Commission, Markus Meckel, will also give an address at the opening ceremony.

The exhibition covers a wide spectrum, from the First World War and the establishment of the War Graves Commission to caring for war graves worldwide as a task for the state and the future oriented international youth work carried out by the War Graves Commission. It highlights aspects such as cooperation with partner countries and includes a presentation on existing German war graves. One of the items on display is a memorial stone for a Jewish German soldier in the First World War. Numerous German missions abroad have provided pictures and texts for the exhibition.

As well as being the last service to the dead as a humanitarian duty to their families, the work of the War Graves Commission is also an element of German foreign policy, in the sense of “reconciliation over the graves”. The Federal Foreign Office and its missions abroad support this work, for example by looking after war graves in countries in which the War Graves Commission does not maintain a presence.

The exhibition forms part of the year of commemoration 2014 marking the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. The German War Graves Commission, supported by the Federal Foreign Office, also keeps up the website www.100 Jahre Erster Weltkrieg.eu which details a host of events, memorial projects and exhibitions commemorating the First World War in Germany and internationally.

The exhibition will be on view in the Atrium of the Federal Foreign Office until 25 April 2014. Entrance is free.