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Foreign Office in Berlin
Photo: Janine Schmitz/photothek.de / imago images/photothek
The Federal Foreign Office under Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has renamed the so-called Bismarck Room the "Hall of German Unity" - the Bismarck family is now appalled.
In a press release, Alexander von Bismarck accuses the minister of a “lack of historical awareness”.
The family was “horrified and unspeakably sad”.
The new name takes into account the historical development of the area in which the Politburo of the SED met during the GDR era, the Foreign Office had announced.
The renaming "takes into account the fact that the Federal Foreign Office sees its line of tradition firmly anchored in Germany's democratic history," the "Bild" newspaper quoted from a statement by the Federal Foreign Office.
First Chancellor
Otto von Bismarck became the first Chancellor of the German Empire in 1871.
He had already founded the Foreign Office the year before, which is why a painting in the Bismarck Hall commemorates him.
Again and again there were discussions about the importance of Bismarck.
Originally, Bismarck had been a staunch opponent of extra-European expansion.
He did not believe in the economic advantages of colonies, but he bowed to internal political pressure.
In 1884, Bismarck invited the Congo Conference to the Reichskanzlerpalais in Berlin's Wilhelmstraße in order to agree on coordinated action by the European powers in Africa.
Their final document of February 1885 marks the beginning of the division of Africa into colonies.
"The moralizing foreign minister failed in her duties," the family said in a statement.
"Not only does she treat many other countries negatively, but she also twists history in her own country."
»Taking the democratic and constitutional principles of the present as a benchmark shows a lack of historical awareness.«
The Bismarck family also interprets Baerbock's general dealings with the room in the Foreign Office: »Holding the painting of Otto von Bismarck as the founder of the Foreign Office and also the first head of this office in the Bismarck room and also renaming the room shows that Baerbock for Germany has no sense of history.« This year the family is celebrating its 750th anniversary.
"Achievements of the first German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, from which Germany still benefits today, are ignored in this way."
According to their own information, the family association had around 340 family members in 2015.
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