Now when I go to Wrocław – and I’m constantly drawn there
– I can see both the past and the present in it. This is an enriching
experience. I have a lot of understanding for the vagaries of the
city and its residents. Many present-day Vratislavians are also from
families who were expelled. Like my mother, they had to summon
up the courage to start a new life in an alien city. They refused to
look back, and focused on the future.
The spirit of those Wrocław pioneers is palpable today once
again, or perhaps I should say: anew. In my eyes it is this that shapes
the remarkable mentality of the city and its residents. Wrocław has
always been a place of new ideas and new beginnings. And also
a place of reconciliation.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
