默克尔勉励毕业生：打破束缚你的高墙

德国总理在毕业典礼上敦促毕业生“拥抱新的开始”

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/05/at-harvard-commencement-merkel-tells-grads-break-the-walls-that-hem-you-in/

Christina Pazzanese 哈佛大学特约撰稿人 2019年5月30日

周四下午，哈佛大学2019届毕业生最后一次齐聚毕业典礼，德国总理安格拉·默克尔告诫毕业生们，不要把任何事情视为理所当然。

“我们的个人自由并非天赐之物。民主并非理所当然。和平与繁荣亦非理所当然，”主讲人默克尔说道。“但只要我们打破束缚我们的高墙，只要我们走出去，勇于拥抱新的开始，一切皆有可能。”

默克尔主要用德语讲话，她的讲话不时被翻译成英文。她讲述了自己非凡的人生经历：35岁时，她作为共产主义东德的一名科学家，在新统一国家的政治体系中一路晋升，最终成为德国首位女总理，并且，许多分析人士认为，她是自由世界的领袖。她敦促应届毕业生勇于冒险，深思熟虑后再做决定，并坚守核心价值观。

她回忆起每天下班回家时路过柏林墙的沮丧。那道钢筋水泥的屏障，将这座城市、这里的人民、这里的家庭，包括她自己的家庭，分隔开来。

“每天，我都不得不在最后一刻放弃自由，”在哈佛校友会（HAA）年会上，在三百周年剧院，面对挤满观众的毕业生和校友，她发表了长达35分钟的演讲，讲述了自己的早年经历。

人潮涌动的三百周年纪念剧院
三百周年纪念剧院人潮涌动，观众纷纷前来迎接德国总理安格拉·默克尔。

Kris Snibbe/哈佛大学摄影师

“柏林墙限制了我的发展机遇。它确实挡住了我的去路。然而，有一件事是这堵墙多年来无法做到的：它无法限制我的内心世界、我的个性、我的想象力、我的梦想和渴望。”

事实上，1989年，随着共产主义的垮台，柏林墙意外倒塌，不仅结束了德国的分裂，也为默克尔带来了新的机遇，包括成为一个她从未想过自己能成为的人。“一扇门突然打开了”，“我得以跨越这道边界，走进广阔的天地，”她回忆道。

她告诉听众，从那段改变人生的经历中，她学到的是“任何看似一成不变或不可改变的事情都可能改变”，他们应该以同样的方式去面对生活中不可避免的障碍，无论是物质的、社会的、智力的还是文化的。

在晨练期间，这位德国总理因其在世界舞台上的坚定领导力以及对民主理想和国际合作的坚定捍卫而被授予荣誉法学博士学位。

与其说是政治演讲，不如说是一场传统的毕业典礼演讲，默克尔的讲话确实触及了几个热门的外交政策问题。她强调了欧盟和多边主义的益处，以及与美国建立“基于民主价值观和人权”的跨大西洋关系的重要性，以及——在欧洲准备迎接与美国可能发生的贸易冲突之际——国际自由贸易带来的共同繁荣。

德国总理安格拉·默克尔向人群挥手致意。
安格拉·默克尔35分钟的演讲在一片掌声中落下帷幕。

罗斯·林肯/哈佛摄影师

尽管默克尔担任德国总理14年来一直深受欢迎，但她所在的中右翼政党——基督教民主联盟——在上周的欧洲议会选举中，其选民支持率却出现下滑（转向极右翼和极左翼政党）。在一次电视采访中，默克尔表示，展现民主的行动是应对欧洲日益兴起的民粹主义和反民主运动所带来的危险的最佳方式，同时也承认气候变化如今已成为一个决定性的政治议题，尤其对德国年轻人而言。

或许正是出于对这一现实的认同，将于2021年卸任的默克尔承诺，她将“竭尽所能”确保德国在2050年实现气候中和。

在这个急躁和追求即时满足的时代，默克尔敦促毕业生和校友们思考他们做出决策的原因，尤其是在科技领域。她说，作为总理，她经常扪心自问，自己做某件事是因为这件事正确，还是因为它可能。

“你们也需要不断扪心自问，”她说。“是我们为科技制定规则，还是科技决定了我们的行为？”

作为一名深思熟虑的领导者，默克尔建议毕业生们在做决定时要多花些时间，这个过程需要他们在待人处事上展现“勇气和真诚”。

“或许最重要的是，它呼吁我们对自己诚实。还有什么地方比这里更适合开始这样做呢？这里聚集了来自世界各地的众多年轻人，他们秉持着真理的准则来学习、研究和讨论我们时代的问题。这就要求我们不能把谎言说成真理，也不能把真理说成谎言。”她说道，全场起立鼓掌。

临别之际，默克尔建议毕业生们走向世界，“打破无知和狭隘的壁垒，因为没有什么必须一成不变。”

校长拉里·巴考在下午的活动中发言。
校长拉里·巴考回忆了他领导哈佛大学第一年的精彩瞬间。Kris Snibbe/哈佛摄影师
在给校友的报告中，哈佛大学校长拉里·巴考（1976届法学博士、公共政策硕士、哲学博士） 1978年，巴考回忆了他领导哈佛大学第一年的一些亮点，走访了美国和亚洲的各个城市，向致力于公共服务的校友和社区领袖学习。他谈到了如何结识学生，包括即将毕业的大四学生，以及哈佛大学剑桥校区和波士顿校区的教职员工，他们以各种不同的方式致力于改变世界、服务公众利益。

巴考还指出了我们这个时代的“动荡”，致命暴力事件频发，尤其是针对犹太人、穆斯林和基督教信徒的暴力事件；性侵犯和性骚扰的持续存在；以及气候变化和极端天气带来的生存威胁。

“诚然，世界上有很多事情确实困扰着我们。但还有更多的事情让我们充满希望，”巴考说道。“而这种希望的精神——既愿意正视世界的现状，又愿意思考如何让它变得更好——在很多方面，正是这所大学的精神所在，我相信，这种精神将我们所有人紧密联系在一起。”

巴考表示，迄今为止的所见所闻让他深受启发。

“这就是这所大学的力量——而非它的品牌，而非我们的建筑，亦非我们的浮夸和排场，”他说道。“这所大学的力量在于它的人民——他们的抱负，他们的成就，他们多元化的背景、经验和思想，他们超越自我的渴望，以及他们为他人服务的奉献精神。”

“所以，是的，我是一个乐观主义者。我之所以乐观，是因为我生活和工作在你们所有人之中，因为我看到你们所做的一切，因为我知道你们拥有无限的潜力。”

哈佛大学校友会主席 Margaret M. Wang（2009届）热烈欢迎新毕业生加入校友行列，向参加校友会的里程碑式校友聚会致意，并宣布了监事会和哈佛大学校友会董事会的选举结果。

此外，Bacow 还向校友 Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland（76届，工商管理硕士，79届）、Dan H. Fenn Jr.（44届，文学硕士，72届）和 Tamara Elliott Rogers（74届）颁发了哈佛奖章，以表彰他们多年来对哈佛大学的杰出贡献和服务。

Merkel advises graduates: Break the walls that hem you in

At Commencement, German chancellor urges them 'to embrace new beginnings’

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/05/at-harvard-commencement-merkel-tells-grads-break-the-walls-that-hem-you-in/

Christina Pazzanese Harvard Staff Writer  May 30, 2019

As Harvard’s Class of 2019 gathered for the last time at Commencement Thursday afternoon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned the new graduates to take nothing for granted.

“Our individual liberties are not givens. Democracy is not something we can take for granted. Neither is peace, and neither is prosperity,” said Merkel, the main speaker. “But if we break down the walls that hem us in, if we step out into the open and have the courage to embrace new beginnings, everything is possible.”

Speaking primarily in German, with her remarks periodically translated into English, Merkel drew from her own remarkable life story as a 35-year-old scientist in communist East Germany who rose through the ranks of the newly unified state’s political system to become Germany’s first woman chancellor and, many analysts would argue, leader of the free world. She urged the new graduates to take risks, make thoughtful decisions, and hold onto core values.

She recalled her frustration at walking past the Berlin Wall every day on her way home from work. It was a barrier of steel and concrete that divided the city, its people, and its families, including her own.

“Every day, I had to turn away from freedom at the last minute,” she said of her early years, during a 35-minute speech to the graduates and alumni during the annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) before an overflow crowd at Tercentenary Theatre.

An overflow crowd at Tercentenary Theatre greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“The Berlin Wall limited my opportunities. It quite literally stood in my way. However, there was one thing which this wall couldn’t do through all those years: It couldn’t impose limits on my inner thoughts, my personality, my imagination, my dreams and desires.”

Indeed, the wall’s unexpected fall in 1989 with the collapse of communism not only ended a divided Germany, it presented Merkel with new possibilities, including a chance to become someone she never imagined she could be. “A door suddenly opened” and “I was able to cross this border and venture out in to the great wide open,” she recalled.

What she learned from that transformative experience, she told the audience, was that “anything that seems set in stone or inalterable can indeed change,” and that they ought to approach the walls they’ll inevitably encounter in their lives, whether physical, social, intellectual, or cultural, in similar fashion.

During Morning Exercises, the German chancellor was awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree for her resolute leadership on the world stage and her unwavering defense of democratic ideals and international cooperation.

More a traditional commencement speech than a political address, Merkel’s remarks did touch on several topical foreign-policy issues. She touted the benefits of the European Union and multilateralism, the importance of a transatlantic relationship with the U.S. that is “based on democratic values and human rights,” and — as Europe braces for a possible trade clash with the U.S. — mutual prosperity as a result of international free trade.

Angela Merkel’s 35-minute speech ends on a wave of applause.

Despite her longstanding popularity as chancellor for 14 years, Merkel’s own center-right party, the Christian Democratic Union, saw an erosion of voter support (to parties on both the far right and far left) in last week’s elections to the European Parliament. In a television interview, Merkel said showing democracy in action was the best way to confront the dangers posed by Europe’s rising populist, anti-democratic movements, while conceding that climate change is now a decisive political issue, particularly for young Germans.

Perhaps in a nod to that reality, Merkel, who will leave office in 2021, pledged that she would “do everything in my power” to ensure that Germany achieves climate neutrality by 2050.

In this era of impatience and instant gratification, Merkel urged the graduates and alumni to consider why they’re making decisions, particularly around technology. As chancellor, she said, she often asks herself whether she’s doing something because it is right or because it is possible.

“That is something you, too, need to keep asking yourselves,” she said. “Are we laying down the rules for technology, or is technology dictating how we act?”

A deliberative leader, Merkel suggested graduates take more time when thinking through decisions, a process that will require “courage and truthfulness” in how they deal with others.

“And perhaps most importantly, it calls for us to be honest with ourselves. What better place to begin to do so than here, in this place where so many young people from all over the world come to learn, research, and discuss the issues of our time under the maxim of truth? That requires us not to describe lies as truth and truth as lies,” she said, to a standing ovation.

In parting, Merkel advised graduates to go out into the world and “tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.”

President Larry Bacow recalls highlights of his first year leading the University. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

In his report to alumni, Harvard President Larry Bacow, J.D. ’76, M.P.P. ’76, Ph.D. ’78, recalled some highlights of his first year leading the University, traveling to cities across the U.S. and Asia and learning from alumni and community leaders committed to public service. He talked about getting to know students, including graduating seniors, as well as faculty and staff on Harvard’s Cambridge and Boston campuses who work in many different ways to change the world and serve the public good.

Bacow also noted the “volatility” of our times, which have been marred by episodes of deadly violence, especially against Jewish, Muslim, and Christian worshippers; the persistence of sexual assault and harassment; and the existential threat posed by climate change and extreme weather.

“To be sure, there is much in the world that rightly troubles us. But there is even more that gives us cause for hope,” said Bacow. “And that spirit of hope — the willingness both to see the world as it is and to consider how we can help make it better — is in many ways the spirit that defines this University and, I believe, joins us all together.”

Bacow said he has been inspired by what he has witnessed thus far.

“That is the power of this institution — not its brand, not our buildings, not our pomp and circumstance,” he said. “This University is its people — their aspirations, their achievements, their diversity of background and experience and thought, their desire to see beyond themselves and their devotion to serving others.

“So yes, I am an optimist. I am an optimist because I live and work among all of you, because I see what you do and because I know the boundless potential of what you can do.”

HAA President Margaret M. Wang ’09 welcomed the new graduates into the alumni fold, greeted the milestone reunion classes in attendance, and announced the results of the Board of Overseers and HAA Board of Directors elections.

Also, Bacow presented Harvard Medals to alumni Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland ’76, M.B.A. ’79, Dan H. Fenn Jr. ’44, A.M. ’72, and Tamara Elliott Rogers ’74 for their outstanding contributions and service to the University over many years.