Overview
- Speaking at the November 9, 2025 commemoration, the German president said liberal democracy is under pressure and accused populists of profiting from fear.
- He insisted there can be no political cooperation with extremists in government or parliaments, a stance widely read as a rebuke to the AfD.
- Steinmeier described a dual threat that includes Russian aggression breaking Europe’s peace order and the growing strength of the far right.
- He reflected on the date’s layered history, invoking 1918 and 1938, and lamented fading momentum from the 1989 peaceful revolution and enduring east–west disparities.
- Background: the Berlin Wall, erected by the GDR in 1961 to stop the exodus to the West, ran about 155 kilometers, cost between 140 and 260 lives, and its 1989 fall sped reunification.