Christmas Contemplations

My dear fellow Germans,

My wife and I wish you a happy and blessed Christmas. Wherever and however you celebrate, we wish you a good time together with people who are close to your heart.

Many of us can look back on a good year: at wishes that were fulfilled and endeavors that were worth the effort. For some of us, a look back is also marked by painful memories: the loss of people dear to us, a fateful blow or thwarted hopes. For everyone who's unable to celebrate Christmas with a light heart, I wish you strength and confidence.

This year, too, I have traveled a lot in our country, and I'm thankful for what people have shown me. They have told me about their worries and difficulties, but also that they feel like things have gotten better in Germany.

One thing in particular moves me every time: citizens joining forces where they face common problems and setting about to find solutions together, often entirely independent of public offices and authorities. Things come into being: playgrounds, theater groups and job exchanges for the unemployed and school partnerships, for example.

And, in the end, people are happy to discover: We did more than merely filling a gap. Together, we have created something meaningful that shows us how much creative energy we possess and how much actually depends on us. We have received confirmation and we have also taken one step against loneliness. Ever more people brought together by a common aim are taking responsibility for one another, and there they find something of the foothold that every one of us needs. That's good news.

Let us imagine what would happen if the young and old in Germany truly discovered what they could make possible together. Let's see: In the past 100 years, life expectancy here has increased by 30 years. The years gained are a great gift. But I sometimes think we still don't pay enough heed to them. People who can do a lot, who have a lot of experience and energy are still pushed out of active life. Yet so many of them want to pass on something to the young.

I'm thinking of the church musician in Saxony who helps children with their homework. I'm thinking of the retired teacher in Hamburg who knows how important good manners are and teaches them to schoolchildren, regardless of where they come from. I'm thinking of the manager who, after the end of his professional career, helps young people start their own companies, and the craftsman who, as a pensioner, goes to Africa to train apprentices.

I think it's worthwhile to build on such examples. I want the experience and poise of older people to connect with the eagerness and curiosity of the young, and I'm sure that where that happens, it will result in good.

I would like to thank everyone who already demonstrates that on a daily basis: the many grandparents who take care of their grandchildren and the older people who look out for children in their neighborhood and speak well of them.

We all know how important attentiveness is. I would also like to thank the young people who are there for their elderly relatives. At the same time, the young families have a lot to bear. The working world has certainly become more difficult and the burden of costs and taxes is high. But the amount of trust and help we have between generations today, and what we can still make possible, is a treasure from which everyone benefits and which each person can add to.

This evening I would like to thank everyone who is doing service over the holidays. And I would like to send thanks and a greeting from home to our soldiers, our police officers and our aid workers abroad, working for world peace. My thoughts in this hour also go out to the families of those who have lost their lives in foreign deployments.

Christmas is, for both of us, two things: A time to contemplate what is really important to us and a time to gain new confidence and to go forward, freshly bolstered. Let's bring some of this special atmosphere into the New Year and beyond.

My wife and I wish you all tranquil holidays and a good, peaceful new year.