Begrüßung des Berliner Diplomatenclubs Willkommen in Berlin
Meine sehr geehrten Damen,
willkommen in Hamburg! Ich freue mich, Sie im Namen des Senats der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg hier im Rathaus begrüßen zu dürfen. Gäste aus so vielen Ländern gleichzeitig hier zu haben, kommt selbst bei uns nicht jeden Tag vor. Einige von Ihnen sprechen nicht Deutsch, darum erlaube ich mir, ins Englische zu wechseln.
Some of you do not speak German, so I shall, if I may, continue in English.
Ladies,
Through the centuries Hamburg Germanys second-biggest city with some 1.8 million residents at the heart of a metropolitan region numbering over five million has always seen itself as a cosmopolitan metropolis; now this centre of trade and industry is one of the major hubs for goods traffic in Europe, and indeed in the world. At the same time, Hamburg also acts as a hub for people and ideas. Both aspects give Hamburg the dynamism it needs to generate new developments and solutions.
We are very pleased that our city is so international in character: men and women from around 180 countries live here. And everyone who decides to stay contributes their own ideas, personal history, individual talents and skills to this city.
A good half a million of Hamburgs residents have an immigrant background: either they, a parent or both parents migrated to Hamburg from another country. Many are nationals of other countries, but 137,000 of them have lived in Germany for so long that they meet the requirements for taking German citizenship.
As mayor of this city, I write to these people and invite them to become German citizens. And the response is very good: in 2013 alone we celebrated the naturalization of 7,329 people. That is double the number as in 2009. Any every time we hold a naturalization ceremony here in Hamburg Town Hall, we invite hundreds of guests and the event is a big, festive occasion for the whole family.
Hamburg sees itself as an arrival city and was the first of the 16 states in the German Federation to pass its own law recognizing qualifications gained abroad. And so an engineer from Afghanistan, a qualified nurse from Syria or a doctor from Romania may all work in the professions for which they have trained.
A cosmopolitan city also gathers together a variety of religions, as well as people who have no religious convictions. In addition to the Lutheran Protestant Church, with which most people in Hamburg feel some affinity, there have always been significant numbers of Catholics, members of other Christian denominations and Jews - the Jewish community has grown again since the Second World War. More recently, they have been joined by a large group of people who identify themselves as Muslims or Alevis.
Having already signed accords with the Protestant and Catholic churches and with the Jewish community, the City of Hamburg signed an accord last year with Muslims and Alevis which includes provisions for religious instruction in schools and how to treat religious holidays - an important element of our integration policy.
Ladies,
As you know, elections to the European Parliament take place on 25 May. In recent history the European Union has not only promoted open national borders in a large part of our continent and spurred the global economy, but it has also given us the longest period of peace known since the Second World War. It is almost Utopia come true, and more than anyone would have expected a few decades ago.
I am convinced that we can only meet the regional, national and global challenges of the 21st century if we act together - through strong institutions that are legitimated by democracy, such as the EU and the United Nations, and through an exchange of opinion which, so I hope, will never dry up, and through meetings such as ours today.
Once again, we welcome you most cordially to our city and hope you have a pleasant stay here.
Es gilt das gesprochene Wort.