I am delighted to be here this evening, and, as a matter of fact, this is my first time on this stage.

Unlike the productions you would normally see here, this evening’s script is yet unwritten.

You have chosen to discuss the future tonight.

So nothing too ambitious, just one of humanity’s greatest questions.

My 40^th subscription anniversary has already given away the fact that some of what once lay in the future for me can now be considered history.

Do you know what strikes me when I look back?

The future, as it was for me then, existed only as a vague vision.

Perhaps a hope, sometimes expectations and, on occasion, worries as well.

Nothing seemed truly inevitable and when we believed we knew what was coming that belief often enough proved to be an illusion.

In retrospect, and indeed in the way history is written, the past is often portrayed as a straight line.

A chain of inevitable events that had to unfold exactly as they did.

I think that view might be mistaken.

Karl Schlögel would speak here of history as the simultaneity of events.

He calls this the symmetry of time and space.

History unfolds not as a sequence of dates but as a multitude of experiences made in particular places.

Weimar strikes me as an example that continues to remain deeply relevant today.

It seems to me that when we speak of “Weimar” today, we often invoke a historical inevitability that simply was not there.

One of my favourite authors is Sebastian Haffner, and one message I keep taking from his writings is this:
Nothing was inevitable or predetermined.

Rather, we were faced with a coexistence of extremes that ended in catastrophe.

My parents’ generation was brought into that world at a young age and then had to come up with a vision of the future amid the ruins of Germany.

What followed were years of reconstruction.

Years marked by the success of the social market economy.

By the economic miracle that put Germany back on strong footing.

By the arduous yet successful reconciliation with France, a joint effort which made former enemies first partners and ultimately friends and allies.

Ultimately bringing together Europe within a shared community.

None of this unfolded in a linear fashion or followed a simple if-then logic.

Many things that seemed certain and logical never came to pass.

In the end, what emerged was the result of courageous action by people who took the future into their own hands.

People who designed a shared vision of freedom, security and prosperity, and acted upon it.

When was the last time you came up with a vision for your own future?

And I mean truly on your own.

Not one you picked up from a newspaper or a podcast.

When was the last time you looked to the future with optimism and with the feeling that you yourself had the power to shape it?

Ladies and gentlemen, I dare say that we in Germany are finding that rather difficult at the moment.

There are many reasons for this.

On the one hand, we are witnessing crises across the globe.

Wars without end.

An increasing number of extreme weather events.

Technological advances that seem to have taken on a life of their own.

And then we realise that these crises are not distant events on our periphery, but developments that have a real impact on our daily lives.

An abstract “hybrid war”, for example, suddenly becomes very real when Russia deploys armed drones in our country.

This makes one thing clear: the situation our country is facing is indeed serious.

Threats are no longer a distant possibility. They have become a reality.

And I can see why the perceived omnipresence of crises gives rise to a sense of helplessness.

How could it not when we are confronted with apocalyptic headlines on a daily basis?

How could it not when news stories utilising fear, envy, anxiety and hatred naturally attract greater attention than others?

In such a climate, much can begin to look inevitable.

The alleged decline of the economy. A confrontation perceived to be inescapable. Even the much-heralded downfall of the Occident.

But none of it is inevitable.

For me, as Foreign Minister, the geopolitical reality we face is a daily call to action.

And I see, in very concrete examples, what is happening.

Yes, it often feels as though the world produces a new crisis every day, while we are still searching for answers to the crises we are already facing.

Next week, I will travel to the UN General Assembly.

It is meant to be the very place where the nations of the world come together to find those answers.

I say “meant to be” because the UN is living through a period of tension unlike any since its foundation.

A UN that has been gradually eroded by great-power rivalry, and whose Security Council appears deadlocked by the same familiar cycle of vetoes.

This is precisely why restoring the ability to act on the international stage is that much of a challenge

If there is one lesson we have learned, especially in Germany, it is that we can only succeed when we take a united stand.

And we must never stop believing that.

Or working towards it. Every single day.

As a politician, I do not normally use the word “vision” very often.

That may reflect my North German temperament, or perhaps the lasting effect of Helmut Schmidt permanently giving the term a bad reputation.

Even so, I believe that today, more than ever, we must remind ourselves that our future has not been written yet.

Achievements such as the liberal constitutional order of our state give each and every one of us the freedom to take charge of our own future.

But that requires a willingness to embrace the future.

It requires the conviction that our collective actions can lead us to a better path than the one that currently seems to be unfolding before us.

The past has shown that

when freedom, security and prosperity become goals that are within reach, the collective effort required to achieve them follows.

Our predecessors did achieve them.

Today, it falls to us to defend what they achieved and to continue writing that story.

To conclude, let me leave you with a quotation. This is, after all, a literary festival.

It comes from the Austrian writer Arno Geiger: “Crises derive their meaning from the way they end”.^[1]

We would do well to call that thought to mind every now and then.

Because yes, our future is at stake.

Every single day.

But it is also in the best possible hands.

Our own.

[1] Arno Geiger in “Twist”, arte, 6 September 2026