Saudi officials, including Faisal A. Fatani, director of public relations and media at the Ministry of Culture and Information, and other guests attended the opening of a photo exhibition marking the unification of Germany at the German Embassy on Monday.
“We welcome guests who have graced the opening of the photo exhibition in celebration of the reunification of our country,” said Minister Counselor Michael Ohnmacht, deputy head of mission.
The exhibition includes 18 photographs of Germany before and after reunification.
“Many events have taken place from the time Hungary opened its borders to Germans from the then German Democratic Republic (GDR) in September 1989 to Oct. 3, 1990, the day the reunification treaty was signed,” said Franziska Schirmer, consul and counselor for cultural affairs.
“We have chosen this day for the opening of the exhibition because 24 years ago, on April 5, 1990, the first and only democratically elected East German Parliament came together for the first time,” she said. “This was a great achievement that would have been impossible to imagine just a year before.”
“Most significant is Nov. 9, 1989, the day the Berlin Wall ceased to exist as an uncrossable border,” she said. “All of this occurred almost 25 years ago.”
“It is time to remember and honor the brave people who risked and lost their lives attempting to cross the wall, the last being Chris Gueffroy, who was shot dead in February 1989,” she said.
“We remember the people who were brave enough to take their anger to the streets on Mondays in Leipzig and other East German cities and citizens who weren’t afraid of the secret police and state security (the ‘Stasi’),” said an emotional Schirmer.
“We remember the politicians that took decisions without knowing what was to come, seizing a historic opportunity,” she said.
“As the years go by, one tends to forget the bad and remember the good. I am grateful for the photographers, whose names unfortunately are not known to us, to have preserved a memory of the past,” she added.
Photos resurrect German reunification
