Speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the official dinner of the Deutsche Bundesbank in Berlin, Germany

Berlin, 9 September 2026

It is a pleasure to be here at the Bode Museum in Berlin.

More than two centuries ago, the poet Johann Paul Friedrich Richter described Berlin as “more a part of the world than a city”.^[1] History would prove him right.

This city came to embody the upheavals that shaped Germany, Europe and the world, from the destruction of war to its decades-long division at the centre of the Cold War.

At key points during that time, West Germans and Europeans were confronted with the need to make critical choices. One set of relationships had to be prioritised over another.

In 1949, West Germans made such a choice in their first post-war election. Konrad Adenauer emerged as Chancellor with a clear commitment to anchor the Federal Republic firmly in the West.

Adenauer’s election had ripple effects across Europe. His politics of Westbindung helped set the…