Rede des Oberbürgermeisters bei der Einweihung des World CC Bonn am 07. Juni 2015

Transcription

1 Rede des Oberbürgermeisters bei der Einweihung des World CC Bonn am 07. Juni 2015 Dear Secretary-General, dear Minister Steinmeier, dear Minister Hendricks, dear Minister Löhrmann, Excellencies, dear students of the Comprehensive School at Bonn-Beuel, the Bonn International School, the Beethoven Secondary School and Junior Companie Bonn, Ladies and Gentlemen, Willkommen, Welcome, Bienvenus, Hwa-Njong, Bienvenidos in Bonn! What a day of joy! We are happy and proud to be able to finally inaugurate this state-of-the-art conference center today. And it is a special honor that you, dear Secretary-General Ban, have come to Bonn to recognize with us this milestone for our city and for the United Nations 1

2 in Bonn. Your presence and your appreciation of Bonn as Germany s United Nations City is a very special gift for all of us! Dschon-kjong-ha-nen Ju-en Sahmu Tschong-Dschang-Nim, Ju-en Toschi-in Togil Bo-ne O-scho-so, Bon Toschi-ril Pin-nä Dschu-schi-nin Kosun, Dschohi Modu-ege Tuk-pjol-han Son-mul imida. When officially opening the WorldCCBonn today we are filled with some pride and with lots of relief that we have successfully mastered all tasks on the way. On behalf of the City Council and the City Administration, I would like to thank all those who have actively participated and who have rendered their own contribution towards the achievement of this goal. A special 2

3 thank you goes to our Federal Government and to the Administration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for the financial support and personal assistance, as was demonstrated by Minister Hendricks right here on site. I am convinced that the Federal Government will now put in the cap stone for this building in the form of a necessary agreement with the United Nations on the long-term support for the financing of conferences. Moreover, I would like to thank the staff of our contractors on site, especially the companies Züblin, Imtech and Ernst & Young, who undertook extraordinary efforts to finish the extension building in time. And a very warm thank you goes to the team from our Municipal Property Management, headed by Ms. Marion Duisberg. 3

4 Today we may proudly say that we the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Bonn fulfill the State Treaty which was signed in the Berlin office of our Federal President back in 2002, in the presence of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In 2006, in a first step, we were able to hand over to the United Nations the main building, our so-called Tall Eugene, followed by the former parliamentary building in And today, you, Secretary- General Ban, have come to Bonn to complement Bonn s UN Campus with the new World CC Bonn, as was promised in the year A conference center tailored to the needs of major conferences hosted by the United Nations in Bonn! A conference center that offers the right conditions and a perfect work environment to discuss the pressing issues 4

5 of globalization and to seek answers to the challenges of our time! It is here that the peoples of the world may strive for the right solutions. And they will do so inspired by a special atmosphere in Bonn, which representatives of the United Nations themselves have referred to as a special Bonn Spirit. (If present: In fact, the person who has coined the phrase is with us today. It is Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, former Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity and ADP Co-Chair today.) This Bonn Spirit draws from our city s history of 2,000 years, which began with a Roman settlement on the Rhine. This important settlement, called vicus bonnensis, comprised a multi-story columned hall with impressive 5

6 rows of pillars, serving as a meeting place at the time. It was also a place for monetary policies and the place where Roman money was coined. It was this competence that German kings still made use of in the Middle Ages as well as the Electors from Cologne, who all had their money coined here. And it was here where, in the 20 th century, the Federal Parliament voted for the introduction of the Deutsche mark, later on for the monetary union of Germany, which was reunited from here as well. Finally, the vote in favor of the euro was cast here, too. The City of Bonn also is the cradle of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany. Our constitutional law prepared the ground for 6

7 understanding of East and West, for Germany s unity and helped to make the dream of a united Europe come true. So this is definitely a good place for wise decisions! I wish you, the participants of this conference, that you will make use of our Bonn Spirit and take home a good text from Bonn a text for Paris. A text that will be based on the words that Christiana Figureres used at the beginning of this conference: All together now. A new ambition in a new building! Ladies and Gentlemen, I assure you that Bonn will be a good host for the increasing number of guests that we will be able to welcome here. We welcome them here on the Rhine and begin a new chapter of our city s history: the German writer Carl Zuckmayer described this area as a huge 7

8 melting pot in Europe. For over 2,000 years peoples have met here - Roman captains ran into blonde Teutons, Jewish spice traders came as well as Greek doctors, Celtic legionnaires, lansquenets from Grisons, Switzerland, Swedish cavaliers, Napoleon s troops, deserted Cossacks, log floaters from the Black Forest, traveling miller journeymen from Alsace, Dutch boatmen, the Magyars, Viennese, Pandurs, Frenchmen and Bohemians they all ended up here and decided to stay for good. Like waters from fountains, creeks and streams flow into a river, the different ethnic groups were united and still live here on the Rhine, together with people from roughly 180 nations of the world today. The Rhineland has become their new home. Bonn has become home away from home. And Germany s United Nations City is home today! 8

9 As host city, we do not only want to offer a good home away from home, but also render our own contribution to the topics that are at stake here. Cities all over the world play an important role when it comes to making commitments in favor of our climate, our precious biological diversity or sustainability. We actively participate in the World Mayors Council on Climate Change and in global city networks like ICLEI and CEMR, for instance. We support conferences and meetings hosted by the United Nations and our international non-governmental organizations in Bonn. We maintain climate partnerships with sister cities in South America, Africa and Asia. Finally, we run activities on the ground that focus on sustainable city 9

10 development and include educational programs in the field of development policy, for instance. When you - or our future guests - visit this conference center or our city, we hope that you will not only take home some momentum in your field of activity, some fresh thinking and new ideas from here, but also our Bonn Spirit: this special ambience in our city on the Rhine, a feeling which our city s most famous son, Ludwig van Beethoven, so wonderfully expressed in his Ninth Symphony. Our international city logo says it in one word. Take home this feeling and this one word from Bonn now and in the future: Freude, Joy, Joie, Kip-pum, Alegría Bonn. 10

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