Ladies and gentlemen,

Colleagues,

Let me start by conveying to you the Federal Government’s very best wishes.

My day yesterday started with talks at the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church and today draws to a close with the reception of the Protestant Church in Germany on St John’s Day bringing a wonderful alpha and omega to my diary.

Your speech, Ms Fehrs, was once more a resounding success and is always a font of potential Kirsten Fehrs quotations for us. However, not having had your speech ahead of time, I have brought one quotation along with me today that is a little older.

“Without trust we will all go mad.”

Penned by you. I like it. You said it during the corona crisis. And to my mind, these are very wise words.

“Without trust we will all go mad.”

Your address this evening once again featured a great deal of trust and confidence.

Before your sermon, we heard the Psalm of summer by Waldemar Ahlén.

I would like to repeat the last two lines

“The temporal passes,

The Word of the Lord remains.”

The idea behind these words is to remind us that life is transient but that there is also something that stands eternal.

Something we can hold on to when everything else is in flux.

And this idea is important, also to me personally.

It brings us to the very heart of what we call trust.

Trust: the steadfast, sometimes shaken, but ultimately unshakeable trust in God.

It grounds us. It grounds me, too.

Because I am convinced that without this trust, without this confidence, and I take up your words once again, Ms Fehrs, we would all go mad. Certainly in my line of work.

You just talked about the crisis of the welfare state and about how the real crisis is the one endangering our social cohesion.

And indeed, we are seeing how when crises accumulate and interweave, the pressure builds even in affluent societies.

We are now under pressure.

Pressure coming from both the inside and the outside.

I’m sure you all watch the news every day. I don’t need to go into the many crises that my colleagues in the Diplomatic Service and myself are dealing with day in day out.

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

The war in the Gulf.

The technical revolution driven by artificial intelligence.

These all make demands on our resources.

On our economic resources.

On the resources of our country.

But also on those of each and every one of us.

We see it when we fill our cars, when we pay for our shopping.

And of course these are not things people can simply ignore. They also make demands on our mental resources. How could it be otherwise?

Ladies and gentlemen,

Our society is also founded on a promise of progress.

What parent doesn’t look at their children hoping that the next generation will have a better life than they have.

But given all the crises of our time, this is a promise we are increasingly unlikely to deliver on.

We, the Federal Government, are working to uphold this promise. The last few weeks have been difficult, as my colleague Minister Bas will agree, but to my mind we are making progress.

However, we do need a re-set.

After all, those holding on to this promise in this new reality may not be mad but will quickly end up pretty frustrated.

And I do see that it is difficult for a society to process this experience. That things don’t actually always change entirely for the better. That some things, some certainties, are evaporating.

The fact is that, given this truly fundamental shift in our time, we have to cut our promise of progress to fit.

In a world that some people consider to be marked by a sense of powerlessness, progress means remaining in control, remaining able to act

Turning to our budget, defence spending epitomises the very shift we are experiencing. This spending is an investment in the future of our country. After all, it will ensure that our country stands the test of time.

Yet, financing is running low in many other areas. For people who grew up blessed by peace, this situation may seem to generate a contradiction.

However, it is time to change the way we see things.

And many people in Germany are doing precisely that.

Because they see that we need to.

And because they see that a more resilient society, a society that is in a better and stronger position to face what the world throws at it, represents progress.

Sometimes, this creates a dispute.

A dispute over who steers interpretation.

Our ability to conduct this dispute without declaring one another to be enemies is a wonderful cultural achievement of our society.

And the Protestant Church plays no small part here.

Because it sees us as people with a responsibility bestowed on us by God. As people bearing responsibility. For our own actions. For our fellow human beings. For the society in which we live.

The confident hope of being able to work with others to make a difference is the starting point for all democratic politics.

Anyone who is active in politics does so out of the conviction that we can actively shape our future.

That is certainly my understanding of politics.

It is Protestantism that we have to thank for our civic values.

And that is precisely what those with a totalitarian mindset want to do away with.

We are seeing that in some parts of our own country and in some our neighbouring countries.

Where totalitarian ideologists do not trust the individual in all their freedom and responsibility.

They rank allegiance above conscience.

The very opposite is what Protestantism represents. And that is the reason why it is targeted by those with totalitarian ideologies.

The sign of a free society is not religion being invisible. But people being able to live their beliefs openly.

When two players on a national football team kneel down together on the pitch and pray after the match, it comes across to me as nothing but a visual expression of gratitude, humility and faith.

And yet we are seeing how this act of prayer triggers a culture war within minutes.

Because these days many are disconcerted by open displays of Christian faith in the public sphere.

Particularly in the throes of such debates, a free society needs to prove its mettle, to assert itself.

Beliefs being lived openly reminds us of the Christian perception of humanity in which our society is rooted.

It reminds us of the continuity which gives us something to hold on to and follow when the world seems to be out of joint.

It makes plain that a person is more than just a citizen, more than a consumer, more than the position they hold.

That we still have this place where we come together just as we are. Where everyone is accepted.

In this our time, we see the immense strength that lies therein.

And if we are to be successful, ladies and gentlemen, we as a government are dependent on you, the Church.

As a partner.

As an anchor in our society. Because you are there where our people are.

But more than that. Because your formative power, whether spiritual, intellectual or social, power which has been defining our country for centuries, is now more important than ever before.

Together we stand for the strength and freedom faith brings us.

That unites us in trust.

Thank you very much.