Speech #980098445

I say to my colleagues. does not necessarily share the knowledge. or the understanding. or the sensitivity. or the background that we all grew up with. They do not necessarily have as careful a knowledge of what has gone before. That is why it is especially fortuitous that 1983 is the tricentennial of German immigration to America. Of course. we noted when Vice President BUSH went to Eifel. Germany. to commemorate the first group of Germans who left Germany from that small town to come to the United States. it is an honor and a privilege that the community in which they settled is in my home State of Pennsylvania. Indeed. a German town. it is a part of the city of Philadelphia. the City of Brotherly Love. and though that German immigration to America was. albeit. a handful of families. it became a small trickle. then a larger rivulet. then a substantial migration. While there are many celebrations of the tricentennial that have already occurred and will continue to occur this year. most notably the upcoming visit of the President of the Federal Republic. Karl Carstens. and 30 members of the Bundestag. it is very important that the tricentennial have a legacy that endures beyond this year.