We need... to say to people that this is a temporary residential status, and we expect that, once there is peace in Syria again, once IS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained.
— Angela Merkel
I have a relatively sunny spirit, and I always had the expectation that my path through life would be relatively sunny, no matter what happened. I have never allowed myself to be bitter.
Greece wishes to be part of the eurozone, but it must, of course, go through with the necessary reforms to make this happen.
We've always had this experience that things take long, but I'm 100% convinced that our principles will in the end prevail. No one knew how the Cold War would end at the time, but it did end. This is within our living experience... I'm surprised at how fainthearted we sometimes are and how quickly we lose courage.
Germany's strength lies largely in the fact that the Federal Republic is a center of industry and that it's an export nation.
Very early, it became clear to me that East Germany could not function.
The way I lived my life, I truly wasn't an active resistance fighter.
After the reunification, there was a certain sense of foreignness because daily life in the former East German states was completely turned inside out - everything from the shops to the bureaucracy to the working world.
We have a duty as the state to protect our economy... We are for the protection of intellectual property.
If we look at where relations between the Soviet Union and Germany were in 1945 and where we stand now, then we have achieved so much.
The West was a wonderful world to me. I decided then that if this is the way they did things, then I wanted to be part of it.
When I'm stirring a saucepan, I don't say to myself, 'Now the chancellor is stirring a saucepan.'
I believe those that produce the least emissions in autos will also be those who have the greatest success worldwide.
I personally hope and wish that Britain will stay part and parcel of the European Union.
For somebody who comes from Europe, I can only say if we give up this principle of territorial integrity of countries, then we will not be able to maintain the peaceful order of Europe that we've been able to achieve.
Climate change knows no borders. It will not stop before the Pacific islands and the whole of the international community here has to shoulder a responsibility to bring about a sustainable development.
There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey, and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great.
We will have to accept a certain degree of legal immigration; that's globalisation... In the era of the smartphone, we cannot shut ourselves away... people know full well how we live in Europe.
To grow up in the neighborhood of handicapped people was an important experience for me. I learned back then to treat them in a very normal way.
The G7 - and earlier, the G8 - were a group of countries that shared the same values with regard to freedom and democracy, and through the annexation of Crimea, Russia made it clear at a certain point that these values of keeping the peace, integrity of the borders of a country were not being respected.
As a 7-year-old child, I saw the Wall being erected. No one - although it was a stark violation of international law - believed at the time that one ought to intervene militarily in order to protect citizens of the GDR and whole Eastern bloc, of the consequences of that - namely, to live in lack of freedom for many, many years.
We needed 40 years to overcome East Germany. Sometimes in history, one has to be prepared for the long haul and not ask after four months if it still makes sense to keep up our demands.
At German unification, we were lucky to get so much help from West Germany. Now, we have the good fortune of being able to help each other in Europe.
I always wanted to know what I'd face next, even though that was maybe a bit detrimental to spontaneity. Structuring my life and avoiding chaos was more important.
This inclination to hoard is deeply ingrained in me because in the past, in times of scarcity, you took what you could get.
Ukraine must be permitted to bring their own relief supplies safely to areas in the east of the country that are controlled by the separatists.
The only thing the East German system taught us was that we should never do it that way again.
Solidarity and competitiveness are the two sides of a European coin.
We have to ensure politically that what's doable can indeed by translated into law, but what's not doable mustn't become European law. Otherwise, the auto industry will work somewhere with higher carbon emissions - and we can't want that.
Having led many negotiations with countries outside the E.U. in the past, we would never enter the same compromises and reach the same good outcomes with states that don't shoulder the responsibilities and costs of the common market.
Industrialised countries must take the responsibility of helping poorer countries in the climate change action plan.
Whenever you have political conflict, such as the one that we have now between Russia and Ukraine, but also in many other conflicts around the world, it has always proved to be right to try again and again to solve such a conflict.
We abide by our responsibility as Germany for the Shoah.
Controversial disputes are a part of democratic culture.
I always used the free room that the G.D.R. allowed me... There was no shadow over my childhood.
We will be very persistent when it comes to enforcing freedom, justice, and self-determination on the European continent.
If the euro fails, Europe fails.
In many regions, war and terror prevail. States disintegrate. For many years, we have read about this. We have heard about it. We have seen it on TV. But we had not yet sufficiently understood that what happens in Aleppo and Mosul can affect Essen or Stuttgart. We have to face that now.
It is always the case that when something emerges - which, of course, from the perspective of the former West Germany looks very different - then people say, 'She hasn't told us this yet' and 'She hasn't told us that yet.' I don't know - maybe there are other things I didn't talk about because no one ever asked me.
I come from a country in which I experienced economic collapse.
I think it has been a tremendous feat on the part of East Germans since 1990 to adapt to everything changing.
Sometimes I can't stop myself from buying things just because I see them - even when I don't really need them.
The goal of our actions is and will remain a sovereign and territorially intact Ukraine that can decide its own future.
I chose to pursue a career in physics because there the truth isn't so easily bent.
The 'community method' can only be applied in those areas in which the European Union actually has competence. Where the community has no competence, the 'community method' clearly cannot be applied.
We need a really credible perspective toward long-term de-carbonization.
We work well together with the United Kingdom - particularly, perhaps, when we talk about new rules for the European Union.
We have shared responsibility for global climate; we have to reduce climate change below 2 degrees Celsius.
I think the political class in Berlin doesn't need to be supervised and monitored by intelligence services in order to find out what they're thinking. Just go to lunch with them, go to dinner with them, or read the papers.
I can say that we are very clear in our mind about the responsibility of the national soldiers for the break with civilisation that was the Shoah. We are firmly convinced that this is something that will have to be handed over to generations to come... so we don't see any reason to change our view of history.
