The Polish town of Nakło nad Notecią, known in German as Nakel, is less than five hours away from here by car.

For me it is a special place, as my grandmother was born there in 1910.

Radek Sikorski, my friend, I told you about this when we were at the match between Legia Warszawa and Chelsea in Warsaw recently.

You immediately got out your smartphone, showed me a photo of your house and said: Look, behind the roof there, that’s Nakel.

You live just a few kilometres away from where my grandmother lived.

What an incredible coincidence. As is, by the way, the fact that we were both born in February 1963 – one of us is 13 days older than the other.

But this anecdote is emblematic of relations between our two countries: it shows how close we are to each other – not only how intertwined our roots are, but how closely our present is linked today.

Also – and this is something we should keep on reminding ourselves of – we also share responsibility for our future in Europe.

I don’t want to list all the statistics – the town twinning arrangements, the German-Polish companies, the many thousands of Poles living and working here in Germany, the Germans living and working in Poland, the youth exchanges, the German-Polish and Polish-German families.

All these go to make up the partnership between our countries.

For me, not least for autobiographical reasons, this partnership is a matter very close to my heart.

And as Foreign Minister I can say that the German-Polish partnership is one of the top priorities of my work.

When I say that our history is closely intertwined, I do so in full awareness that it also entails extremely dark chapters.

From Nakel, if you drive along the road towards Bydgoszcz, along the River Netze, you come to Potulice.

Here, following the invasion of Poland, Nazi Germany ran a concentration camp in which 25,000 people were detained.

The road that runs past the concentration camp was paved by children from the camp, working as forced labourers.

Over a thousand people died in this camp at the hands of the National Socialists.

Among them, no fewer than 581 children under the age of five.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Germany we often refer to the reconciliation between our countries as a gift.

In one way, this is quite true: we Germans could not expect, far less demand, forgiveness from the people of Poland. Precisely for that reason, we are immeasurably grateful for it.

Nonetheless, the word “gift” isn’t entirely accurate. Because a gift is handed over and becomes the property of the person receiving it.

You might put it in a cabinet and enjoy it. There’s something complete, something final, about a gift.

But the process of reconciliation is never complete.

I know that some people in Poland have the impression that, to this day, too little is known in Germany about what Nazi Germany did in Poland. That pains me.

And so I say to you quite clearly that Germany must never and will never forget the millions of victims of the German occupation of Poland.

That is why I emphatically support the installation of a permanent memorial to the Polish victims of German aggression and occupation.

Equally, we ought to move ahead rapidly with setting up the German-Polish House in the heart of Berlin.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dietmar Nietan.

Dietmar, we have known each other for many years, and I am aware of your untiring commitment to this and many other projects. Thank you very much for your engagement in our reconciliation process.

I am delighted that the baton can be passed today to Knut Abraham, the new Coordinator of German-Polish Cooperation.

Knut, you supported the Solidarność movement back in the 1980s, as a volunteer, driving lorries with medical supplies and aid packages to Poland.

I have known you for many years from our cooperation in parliament.

I trust in you, and I know that your heart, too, belongs to Poland. For this reason, you are a worthy successor. Welcome!

I would like to focus our activities even more on practical, concrete work for German-Polish relations.

After all, the process of reconciliation also depends on the people on both sides of the border, again and again reaching out to each other, talking to each other, laughing with each other, and sometimes also getting irritated with each other.

Because that, too, is part of friendships.

I would like to add this: the interpersonal ties between our countries can withstand political differences.

But such differences should never prevent us from rolling up our sleeves and shaping our future together.

It is as simple as it is challenging: it is about people taking an interest in each other.

This also lies at the heart of the work of the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation – and the work of each and every one of you:

the teacher from Gdańsk who takes her pupils on a study trip to Nuremberg;

the artist from Frankfurt am Main who stages a show with an artists’ collective from Kraków;

the journalist from Warsaw who reports on Ukrainian refugees in Munich.

Władysław Bartoszewski once said that our countries needed to attain friendship via the normality already attained.

This remains our task.

And that is why I am so pleased that the German-Polish Forum is taking place again today, after a seven-year break.

It’s high time.

As interlinked as are our roots, so is our friendship today.

And – if you will allow me a touch of pathos – just as inextricably linked is our fate.

At this time when our European peace is more at risk than at any time since the end of the Cold War, we have a joint responsibility for security, freedom and prosperity in Europe.

It is absolutely vital that we – Poles and Germans arm in arm – stand alongside Ukraine in the fight against Russia’s war of aggression. We stand like a wall.

The two prizewinners we will be honouring today are representative of the engagement with which many volunteers and initiatives support our neighbours in Ukraine.

We will continue to need this solidarity.

And it will also be the guiding principle for cooperation between our governments. We will continue to provide support for Ukraine – for as long as it takes.

Poland understood before many people in Germany the scale of the threat from Russia.

And what an epochal rethink it means for security on our continent and thus also for NATO.

That is why security is the top priority for us, the new Federal Government.

Let me add: this includes the security of our partners.

That’s why Polish and German pilots are together patrolling Polish airspace.

That’s why German Patriot units are securing the Polish air hub in Rzeszów.

That’s why German ships are part of the NATO mission Baltic Sentry off the coast of Poland.

It is quite simple: Poland’s security is Germany’s security.

My dear Radek,

You have written a lovely book about the house you bought and renovated 25 years ago, “The Polish House: An Intimate History of Poland”.

In it, you write that you can row a boat from your house to Nakel.

My grandmother’s birthplace.

And you describe how aware you have been since childhood of our shared, turbulent history, and the crimes of the National Socialists.

Today we stand alongside each other as Foreign Ministers and friends.

For that one can only be thankful.

I am grateful also for your tremendous commitment to our German-Polish friendship, for your huge efforts.

None of this should be taken for granted.

Thank you very much for your engagement! May this event be successful and our friendship endure.

We are committed to it.