June 30, 2025: CDA Meltzer Remarks J4 Event Berlin June 30, 2025 / As delivered

Ambassadors, State Secretaries, Bundestag members, dear friends of the United States:

Guten Abend. Good evening. And thank you Ethan Ashley, for that introduction! Thank you to our Marines and the Color Guard for lending tonight’s ceremony its gravitas, and to Eric Fennell for his stirring renditions of the American and German national anthems.

And welcome to our guests this evening to the U.S. Embassy’s annual Independence Day celebration here in Berlin! Tonight, we mark the 249th anniversary of American independence—a moment not only for celebration, but for reflection. Serving as Chargé in this extraordinary city and extraordinary country – and having the opportunity to work with one of my country’s very closest allies – is a highlight of my career, as it is for so many of my colleagues in Mission Germany.

On Independence Day, we celebrate the ideals on which America was founded, including life, liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness. As some of you know, a replica of the U.S. Declaration of Independence hangs in the Embassy’s rotunda. Many of us pass it each day, and it is remarkable how many of our colleagues and visitors stop to read the words that launched the great experiment of American democracy, words that continue to inspire us.

These foundational ideals are, of course, not America’s alone, but rather the birthright of humanity and the very basis of Western democracy. These values have also served as the foundation of the North Atlantic Alliance for over 75 years, as they will for generations to come.

Today, as we celebrate U.S. Independence Day, we are writing a new chapter in the longstanding friendship and strategic partnership between the United States and Germany. With new leadership in both capitals and a great White House meeting last month between President Trump and Chancellor Merz, we are poised to accomplish a great deal together.

As we recommit to a transatlantic alliance that has maintained our collective security for over 75 years, we also recognize that there are elements that need to be modernized. The world of today is very different from the world which existed at the advent of the transatlantic alliance after World War II. It is incumbent that we ensure the order remains fit for purpose in the mid-21st Century, a time of significant new challenges as well as new opportunities.

That work of modernizing the transatlantic relationship has already begun. At the very successful NATO summit in The Hague last week, NATO leaders embraced President Trump’s proposal to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, ensuring that NATO member states contribute proportionally to our collective security. For his part, Chancellor Merz’s early support for the 5% goal, and Germany’s strong leadership in encouraging other allies to support it, were highly impactful, for which we are deeply appreciative. The message of the Allies’ ironclad commitment to Article 5 coming out of The Hague sent a resolute message to our adversaries, reinforcing NATO’s deterrence.

Even as we have reenergized the North Atlantic Alliance, we are also working to address imbalances that have, over time, crept into the transatlantic trade relationship. These imbalances shape the perceptions of fairness that are vital to ensuring the sustainability of our economic partnership. Our teams are hard at work on a path forward and I am optimistic we will reach an agreement soon.

On a personal level, in our year of living in Berlin and travels across all 16 Bundesländer, what has struck me most are the breadth and depth of the ties between the United States and Germany. These ties, between millions of individual Americans and Germans with family or close friends across the Atlantic, thousands of businesses, many represented here tonight, that together with their partners generate prosperity in both countries, and hundreds of university partners jointly expanding the frontiers of science, all serve as pillars that ensure the relationship’s long-term vitality. In the end, it all comes down to people, to each of us whose commitment to the relationship runs deep and who understand how much we benefit from each other.

We lost one of those people this year. Our friend Margot Friedländer, a remarkable German-American, was a survivor, a witness, and—literally until her very last day—a clarion voice in calling for a common humanity.

Last fall, my wife Anna and I visited Margot in her Berlin apartment, lined with books and memories of her life and her inspirational career. We were profoundly moved when she told us that her only regret at the age of 103 was that she did not have more time to continue her life’s work. In her last public appearance, at a May 7 event to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe at Berlin’s Rotes Rathaus, she repeated her simplest and most enduring message: “Seid Menschen!” Margot’s life was an expression of the values we honor tonight, values enshrined in America’s founding document and in the Federal Republic’s Grundgesetz. Let us continue the work that Margot no longer can, ensuring that her message lives on in each of us and that we pass it on to future generations.

In closing, to our many sponsors for this evening’s festivities—your generosity makes this celebration possible, and your support reflects the strength of the connections we commemorate tonight. While our sponsors are too numerous to list here, their names are prominently displayed at various places in this venue. Please join me in recognizing their many contributions with a round of applause.

I must also thank my extraordinary team here at the Embassy–especially the Reception Organizing Committee–for this incredible celebration, as well as the more than one hundred embassy volunteers who made this evening happen. Organizing an event with over 2,200 friends is a vast task that started in the depth of winter. I am truly grateful to my team for their very hard work and commitment to excellence.

So thank you all for joining us this evening, for demonstrating your commitment to a deep and vibrant U.S.-German relationship. Anna and I look forward to being able to meet many of you over the course of the evening.

Please allow me to conclude with a toast: let us raise our glasses to the ideals promulgated by America’s visionary founders, which remain the values at the very core of Western democracy, and to the deep spirit of friendship that links our two countries. May it grow ever deeper in the years to come.

Thank you.

Photo album: Fourth of July Celebration
Berliner Zeitung reports:
Die US-Botschaft feierte am Montagabend vorab den 4. Juli im Westhafen mit über 2000 Gästen und klaren politischen Botschaften.
Tagesspiegel reports: Die US-Botschaft lädt zum „Independence Day“ in den Westhafen. Einen neuen Botschafter in Deutschland gibt es noch nicht. Dafür glänzt Geschäftsträger Alan Meltzer mit einer hochdiplomatischen Rede.
Full remarks: Chargé Meltzer speaks at the 2025 Independence Day celebration

Friday, July 04, 2025 at 07:30 PM Berlin Time:
Vagabund Brauerei
Oudenarder Str 16-20
Berlin 13347

Join us at the Vagabond Brauerei as we celebrate July 4th with speeches from special guests!

ARD-tagesschau vom 5. Juli 2025, 9 Uhr: