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German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Saturday thanked the Italian migrants, once known as “guest workers,” who helped rebuild Germany after World War II.<\/p>\n
Italian guest workers made an important contribution to Germany’s economic rise, Steinmeier said at a joint event with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Berlin.<\/p>\n
He said his country owed them gratitude and respect, not least because they often encountered prejudice and rejection in Germany.<\/p>\n
“It took a long time for our country, for my country, to recognize the remarkable achievements of those people who came to us back then,” Steinmeier said.<\/p>\n
“That is precisely why it is so important to me today to make it clear once again: the success story of postwar Germany also has a background in migration,” he added.<\/p>\n
In December 1955, Germany signed an agreement with Italy that enabled hundreds of thousands of Italians to move to Germany to work.<\/p>\n
These people did Germany a lot of good, Steinmeier said. “Not least because they helped us to become a little more Italian as a society. And I don’t just mean in culinary terms,” he joked.<\/p>\n
At the event in Steinmeier’s official residence, Bellevue Palace, the two presidents also honoured six German-Italian town twinning partnerships for projects in the areas of youth and intergenerational dialogue, civic engagement, remembrance culture, sustainability and social cohesion.<\/p>\n
The prize, endowed with \u20ac200,000 ($230,000), “recognizes the role of local authorities and encourages local administrations to forge new relationships with other countries, thereby building a genuine network of local politics,” said Mattarella.<\/p>\n