„From a global view the 20th century has been a century of two huge wars, which reached their destructive climax with the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  For Europe it was a century of two dictatorships: the National Socialists here in Germany and the communism in Russia and spreading from there to the other countries of eastern Europe, too.

All this has also targeted my personal life story:
At age 16 I had to go to the western [war] front as a young soldier and could have fallen there. But I was allowed to belong to those who survived war and imprisonment unharmed. So I was also allowed to participate in 55 years of peace in Europe in the past century. That this peace is lasting at least in Europe until today, must be an obligation for all, to stand up for a permanent peace on our beautiful earth.

This is my wish for our 21st century “