Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was in Greece for an official visit, during which time he apologized for “horrors” committed during the Nazi occupation.
The visit comes just weeks after both the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras and President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, made references to their country’s claims against Germany for billions of euro in reparations from the Second World War.
Steinmeier visited a former concentration camp in Haidari, in western Athens, used by the Nazis.
He said his country still bears the “moral and political guilt” of crimes committed but stopped short of commenting on Greek claims for financial reparations.
A government spokesperson in Berlin, however, called the matter closed.
Germany’s government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a news conference in Berlin that “The reparations issue was legally and politically settled.”
During his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, he brought up the issue of the rise of the right wing in his country.
“We must take steps to convince European citizens that is it possible to emerge, together, from crises- we must keep extreme and populist voices at bay,” he said.
Neither Tsipras, nor Steinmeier brought up the reparations issue but the German President told Tsipras “We ask forgiveness for atrocities” committed and “we do not want to forget the past.”
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