Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier received Israeli President Izchak Herzog for a three-day state visit to Germany. Steinmeier welcomed Herzog and his wife Michal with military honors at Bellevue Palace in Berlin on Sunday. Steinmeier’s wife Elke Büdenbender also attended the ceremony in the official residence of the Federal President.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wanted to receive the state guest on Monday. A walk through the Brandenburg Gate was then planned for Herzog with the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey (SPD). In the afternoon, the Herzog couple is expected to attend the 50th anniversary of the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games at the air base in Fürstenfeldbruck near Munich. In addition to the survivors of the victims, Federal President Steinmeier also takes part in the commemoration.
Shortly before the anniversary, the federal government had agreed with the surviving dependents on compensation of 28 million euros after decades of dispute. This avoided a scandal at the memorial event – for a long time it was unclear whether the bereaved and Herzog would take part. At a joint press conference, the Israeli President particularly praised Steinmeier’s commitment in this context.
At the joint commemoration on Monday in Fürstenfeldbruck, Steinmeier said he would also comment on the “suppression, forgetting and misjudgment” of the time. “It is indeed shameful that it took 50 years,” stressed the Federal President.
“I am very aware that the threefold agreement – recognition of part of the responsibility, compensation and historians’ commission – of course not all wounds can be healed, but we can be optimistic that we will find each other again through this agreement and that this will not remain the case, which puts a strain on German-Israeli relations for the present or the future,” said Steinmeier.
Herzog recalled that the Israeli families of the bereaved had tried in vain for decades to raise the issue. He hopes that “historians will now look reality in the face and our relationships will become healthier as a result”. It is now a matter of “examining human behavior, dealing with the pain and mistakes and learning from them for future generations”.
On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists attacked the Israeli team at the Olympic Games in Munich. Eleven members of the team and one police officer were killed, most of them during the failed rescue operation by the police at the Fürstenfeldbruck air base. The safety precautions were considered inadequate.
