Berlin distances itself from Gauck’s WWII reparations comments
Berlin has distanced itself from recent statements by German President Joachim Gauck, who voiced support for Athens’s demands for reparations for the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War Two.
Asked by journalists to comment on Gauck’s comments, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the president shares the legal position adopted by the government, while calling for closer bilateral ties between the two states.
“Germany has recognized its responsibility for the victims of National Socialism,” Seibert said, adding that although Berlin could not undo its mistakes, “70 years after the end of the war and 35 years after Greece’s entry into the EU, we want to share a common perspective of the future… without forgetting the past.”
