When Chancellor Merkel stood in the Knesset in 2008 and asserted Germany’s »einzigartige Beziehung« or »special, unique relationship with Israel,« she reflected upon the deeper meaning of these words, both in terms of the history and the values of both nations. She asserted that »Germany’s special historical responsibility to ensure the security of Israel« is part of her nation’s Staatsräson, something like the legal raison d’être or DNA of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was the strongest possible affirmation by the German head of state of our country’s commitment to the existence and well-being of the State of Israel. It was also the acknowledgement of a truly profound, historical and societal development over a mere 50 years that even the greatest optimists in Bonn and Jerusalem could not have predicted in 1965.

We must bear in mind, however, that this relationship could have developed very differently. There have been missteps, detours, difficult junctures, and ever present, the unspeakable crimes of the Shoah. In order to understand the magnitude of the accomplishment, it is important to consider the myths as well as the milestones of the 50 years of diplomatic relations. Especially in the beginning, we should recall just how tenuous and fraught some of the steps were.

The exhibition opened at the Foreign Office in Berlin on May 4, 2015. A week later the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, made his first official visit to Berlin the anniversary. Around 60,000 visitors, among them many Israelis, have seen this exhibition in Berlin, where it was on view at the Centrum Judaicum as well as at the Federal Press Office. Important to mention that in Berlin the exhibition was accompanied by an interview with Shimon Stein, Israeli ambassador to Germany from 2001–2007. On December 1, 2016 the exhibition – in Hebrew and German version – opened at Yad Ben Zvi in Jerusalem, at the exact historical site where the ceremony of German Ambassador Rolf Pauls’ presenting of his credentials to Israeli President Zalman Shazar on 19 August 1965 took place.

Dr. Chana Schütz