During his official visit to Athens, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was unexpectedly confronted with renewed Greek demands for reparations on Wednesday.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou reminded Steinmeier of the damage suffered by her country during World War II and a forced loan that Greece paid to Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
The issue of war reparations and the forced loan is still “very important” for the Greek people, said Sakellaropoulou.
“A problem that is still in limbo,” she added.
Greece, which was attacked and occupied during World War II by Italian and allied German troops, has long been demanding reparations for the war damage and repayment of the forced loan by Germany. Depending on the method of calculation, the figure amounts to between €278 and €341 billion ($301 to $369 billion).
Steinmeier acknowledged Germany’s responsibility for the “atrocities” committed before and during the war, but rejected the possibility of further reparations.
“We take a different view on the legal issue you have raised. You know that Germany considers the legal question of reparations to be closed under international law,” he said. “Nevertheless, we stand by our historical and moral responsibility.”
Steinmeier noted Germany’s commitment to the construction of a Holocaust museum in the Greek city of Thessaloniki and the German-Greek youth exchange promoted by Germany.
“[The German crimes in Greece are] a difficult topic that still plays a role in our present-day relations and which we must not avoid, which is why I am also dedicating space to it during this visit,” Steinmeier said.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also brief raised the reparations issue in a subsequent meeting with Steinmeier.
The issue of reparations, and in particular the forced loan imposed by the Nazis, is “still very much alive for Greece,” he said. “And we hope that we will be able to resolve it at some point.”
Steinmeier did not reply to Mitsotakis’ comments in the public part of the meeting. Instead, he praised Greece’s economic recovery in the decade since the eurozone crisis.
According to dpa information, Steinmeier was prepared for the issue of reparations and government bonds to be raised during his three-day visit to Greece, but did not expect Sakellaropoulou to raise it so publicly.
German reparations are expected to be a topic this Thursday during his visit to the village of Kandanos on the island of Crete, which was completely destroyed by German occupation forces in June 1941.
On Wednesday, Steinmeier also visited the 150-year-old German Archaeological Institute of Athens and praised the work of the archaeologists there, who have been involved in more than 160 projects.
“I am very impressed by what you have uncovered, researched and discovered in these one and a half centuries,” Steinmeier said at an event. “You were and are important cultural mediators and your work makes a decisive contribution to the good relations between our two countries.”
