Reunification: Unity celebrations in Hamburg start with an appeal for solidarity

Hamburg started the central celebrations for German Unity Day with a large citizens’ festival. Mayor Peter Tschentscher opened the two-day celebration at noon with an appeal for solidarity in society.

“We want to look into the future together. We have to be and stay confident and not drift away due to populism and polarization,” said the SPD politician and Federal Council President on a floating stage on Jungfernstieg. As the country chairing the Federal Council, Hamburg is hosting the unity celebration this year.

At the festival around the town hall and the Binnenalster, the city wants to present itself as a diverse, sustainable, cosmopolitan and open-to-the-future metropolis with around 400 partners and actors in a colorful program. Already in the morning, numerous visitors took advantage of the good weather to get information or take a selfie with the mayor on Mönckebergstrasse – a well-known shopping street – where the other 15 federal states present themselves. In total, hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected in the Hanseatic city for the festival under the motto “Opening horizons”.

For former Chancellor Angela Merkel, there is a difference between the GDR state and personal life there. “Despite all the attempts to influence young people, the GDR obviously didn’t manage to replace the family. We had friends, we celebrated, we went on vacation with our parents. Those were all experiences,” said the CDU politician and native of Hamburg in the documentary “Am Puls mit Mitri Sirin”, which will be broadcast on ZDF this Tuesday.

“And then there are the formative experiences through the state. I mean, the presence of freedom shapes people, but the absence of freedom also shapes them.”

Ceremony in the Elbphilharmonie on Tuesday

The highlight of the celebrations on Tuesday, the actual day of German unity, is the ceremony in the Elbphilharmonie. In addition to Tschentscher, the President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Stephan Harbarth, will give a speech this year to around 1,300 expected guests, including the heads of government of the federal states and the entire head of state. Before that, there will be an ecumenical service in the main church of St. Michaelis – the “Michel”. Both events will be broadcast live on television by ARD (service) and ZDF (ceremonial event).

At the citizens’ festival, visitors can find out about the constitutional bodies around the town hall. The Federal Government, Bundestag and Bundesrat as well as the Federal Constitutional Court will present themselves. The police, fire brigade and the Bundeswehr are represented on the so-called blue light mile. On Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz there are information stands from more than 40 of the city’s consulates and foreign associations.

Elke Büdenbender christens Hapag-Lloyd’s flagship

Meanwhile, the new flagship of the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd was christened in the port by Germany’s First Lady Elke Büdenbender, the wife of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The almost 400 meter long and 61 meter wide “Berlin Express” can load 23,664 20-foot standard containers (TEU), making it the largest freighter that has ever sailed under the German flag. Even the world’s largest container ships only have a few hundred TEU more capacity.

The “Night of Unity” was planned for the evening. Numerous cultural institutions, companies and churches wanted to keep their doors open until midnight. Also in the evening, the traditional dinner of the constitutional bodies was planned in the Maritime Museum with, among others, Federal President Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). In the afternoon, the former mayor of Hamburg answered questions from the people of Hamburg at a citizens’ dialogue at the “Hamburger Abendblatt”. As soon as he was greeted, he was happy about “the familiar hello”. What he misses most about Hamburg: “The water is always crucial, the Alster and the Elbe. When you think of the Elbe, you always think of the distance.” This is what makes Hamburg so cosmopolitan.

The unity celebration is the final and highlight of Hamburg’s Federal Council Presidency. On Tuesday, Mayor Tschentscher symbolically handed over the baton to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD). She will take office on November 1st. The motto of her Federal Council presidency is “Set sail as one”. United stands for a united Germany, she said. Setting sail is fitting for a federal state with a lot of water like Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. “And it also describes the task that Germany faces.”