Our failure to properly deal with Germany and Japan early cost the world dearly later on. We dare not make the same mistake with China.

The rise of China as a new power is another great challenge for the US. Our failure to properly handle Germany and Japan earlier in the 20th century cost us and the world dearly. We must not make this same mistake with China.

The carrying out of the Potsdam Agreement has however been obstructed by the failure of the Allied Control Council to take the necessary steps to enable the German economy to function as an economic unit.

You can use your means in a good and bad way. In German-speaking art we had such a bad experience with the Third Reich when stories and images were used to tell lies. After the war literature was careful not to do the same which is why writers began to reflect on the stories they told and to make readers part of their texts. I do the same.

But as environment minister I am very interested in a thriving German automobile industry because I can only pay for the rising costs of environmental protection at home and abroad if there are people in Germany with jobs and who pay taxes.

More particularly having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.

You know in 1975 I couldn't get a job in New York City because I was American. The kitchens were predominantly run by French Swiss German and basically I got laughed at. I had education I had experience but got laughed at because I was American.

That's something I learned in art school. I studied graphic design in Germany and my professor emphasized the responsibility that designers and illustrators have towards the people they create things for.

I just went off for two months traveling around Europe on a motorcycle and pretty much turned my phone off. I did 5 000 miles with my dad. We went through Holland Germany Austria Slovenia Croatia Bosnia Montenegro Italy... and then I did Spain and France by myself.

Overcoming the Cold War required courage from the people of Central and Eastern Europe and what was then the German Democratic Republic but it also required the steadfastness of Western partner over many decades when many had long lost hope of integration of the two Germanys and Europe.