Konrad Adenauer citations

Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer , né le 5 janvier 1876 à Cologne et mort le 19 avril 1967 à Rhöndorf, est un homme d'État allemand membre de l'Union chrétienne-démocrate.

Opposant au nazisme après l'avènement du Troisième Reich, il fut, de 1949 à 1963, premier chancelier fédéral de la République fédérale d’Allemagne, auteur de son redressement et de son ancrage atlantiste et européen. Il peut être ainsi considéré comme le « fondateur » de l'Allemagne contemporaine. Adenauer est, avec le général de Gaulle, l'un des promoteurs de la réconciliation franco-allemande. Il est également considéré comme l'un des pères fondateurs de la construction européenne aux côtés de Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Johan Willem Beyen, Paul-Henri Spaak et Alcide De Gasperi.

Surnommé Der Alte , il est le plus vieux dirigeant exécutif d'une démocratie dans l'histoire, ayant atteint ses 87 ans à la chancellerie fédérale.

✵ 5. janvier 1876 – 19. avril 1967
Konrad Adenauer photo
Konrad Adenauer: 12   citations 0   J'aime

Konrad Adenauer: Citations en anglais

“We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.”

Reader's Digest 1972, p. 194 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=ctsnAQAAIAAJ&q=adenauer

“We will never forget. If it takes us five or ten or twenty years, we will never rest until we get our revenge.”

As quoted by General Sir Charles Fergusson in a memorandum (10 July 1945), recalling conversations with Adenauer in 1918-1919, at the end of World War I. As published in Adenauer : The Father of the New Germany (2000) by Charles Williams, p. 293 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=7mhpKYpugJsC&pg=PA293

“I wish that an English statesman might once have spoken of us as Western Europeans.”

Adenauer's remarks on an Associated Press interview (5 October 1945)

“Make Europe your revenge.”

To French PM Guy Mollet after British PM Sir Anthony Eden unilaterally cancelled the Suez operation, thus angering Mollet. (6 November 1956), as quoted in Europe's Troubled Peace, 1945-2000 (2006) by Tom Buchanan, p.102, 2nd ed. 2012 p. 84 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=cAHcBeZhm6UC&pg=PA84&dq=revenge

“In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that he did not also limit his stupidity.”

As quoted in A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965) by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., p. 291 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=uFhNxX5lrNEC&pg=PA291&dq=stupidity

“What do I care about my chitchat from yesterday?”

As quoted in Discussion : Mastering the Skills of Moderation (2009) by Horst Hanisch, p. 91

“One does not throw out dirty water as long as one doesn't have any clean water.”

Statement about Hans Globke, as quoted in "In eigener Sache" at n-tv (8 June 2006) http://www.n-tv.de/politik/BND-ueberprueft-Eichmann-Infos-article184945.html

“I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.”

As quoted in Loggers' Handbook Vol. 36 (1976), p. 72; also in North Western Reporter, Second series (1992) https://books.google.com/books?id=I1KaAAAAIAAJ; similar remarks have been attributed to others, including more recent attributions to Adlai Stevenson and Abraham Lincoln.
Variant:
I insist on being smarter today than I was yesterday.
As quoted in How to Win the Meeting (1979) by Frank Snell, p. 3

“History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided.”

Lend Me Your Ears: Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (2010), 4th edition, edited by Antony Jay
Attributed

“I see the significance of the Marshall Plan in the fact that probably for the first time in history a victorious country held out its hand so that the vanquished might rise again.”

Oral History Interview with Konrad Adenauer https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/adenauer (10 June 1964), Harry S. Truman Library

“European integration should not be rigid but as flexible as we can possibly make it. It should not be a straitjacket for the peoples of Europe but should be their common mainstay, a common support for the healthy, individual development of each of them.”

Address on continuing European integration at the Grandes Conférences Catholiques https://www.cvce.eu/obj/address_given_by_konrad_adenauer_on_continuing_european_integration_brussels_25_september_1956-en-ea27a4e3-4883-4d38-8dbc-5e3949b1145d.html (25 September 1956)

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