“My wish is that the people of Europe who profess common values should never again be separated from each other”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the founding of Berlin’s Checkpoint Charlie Museum (Mauermuseum), in a letter addressed to the Director of the Foundation that operates the institution.
The letter, a copy of which was provided to Hungarian news agency MTI, was also read out at the official celebration in Berlin on Thursday.
“The collapse of the Berlin Wall was the most important moment in the 20th century history of Central Europe. It proved that the community of culture, fate and life that keeps the German people and Europe together can only temporarily be separated from each other by ideologies and walls”, Mr. Orbán wrote in the letter addressed to the Director of the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Foundation.
“People’s suppressed desire for freedom forged a path for itself again and again. And the tighter the suppression, the greater the courage and ingenuity with which we searched for the gateways that led to freedom. We, the Hungarians, still remember with gratitude the uplifting days when in the summer of 1989 the road to freedom was first opened to East German citizens here in Hungary. A new, wider gateway or checkpoint than ever before, that already at the time led us not only to a free world, but also to a united Germany and a unified Europe”, the Hungarian Prime Minister wrote.