German Unity Day Commemoration in Budapest

A commemoration ceremony was held in the garden of the Stefánia Palace in Budapest this Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of German reunification.

The German national day celebration took place at the venue where – in the summer of 1990 –, following the first free elections in East Germany, the Ministers of Defense of the three countries: Rainer Eppelmann from the German Democratic Republic, Gerhard Stoltenberg from the Federal Republic of Germany and the then Hungarian Minister of Defense, Lajos Für planted two trees. The symbolic message of this was that by the time the canopies of the trees planted a few steps apart meet, German reunification would also take place.

The new German Ambassador to Budapest, Johannes Haindl emphasized at the ceremony that Germany still owes a debt of gratitude to Hungary. Without the European framework and, above all, without the opening of the Hungarian border in 1989, reunification would not have been possible or even serious, he said.
The Ambassador also stressed that the two trees symbolize not only the two German states, but also Hungary and Germany, which are closely linked by many bilateral relations. In addition, the canopy of the two trees is considered to symbolize the European Union, Johannes Haindl noted. He pointed out that individual nation states alone can no longer meet the great global challenges, they all rely on the stability of the EU.