Officials representing the district administrations of Korean border areas visit former inter-German border regions

Hersfeld-Rotenburg county was located directly at the border to the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) until the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and has been adjacent to the state border to the Free State of Thüringen since then. The five local politicians from South Korea met with Dr. Michael Koch, county commissioner of Hersfeld-Rotenburg county, and Reinhard Krebs, county commissioner of Wartburgkreis county in Thüringen, with whom they learned about the situation in the former border region before and after the reunification through talks and discussions.

After the talks, the South Korean politicians visited the cardiovascular center in Hersfeld-Rotenburg county to get some impressions on an institution inside the county. Furthermore, the participants also discussed about a possible partnership between the counties of Hersfeld-Rotenburg and Cheolwon. The talks have been conducted separately, but the Hanns Seidel Foundation is looking forward to a positive development on a partnership between the two counties.

Following this appointment, the delegation visited the memorial site Point Alpha. It has been a US-camp during the Cold War, which has been directly observing and surveilling the GDR. A public guiding tour made the start of the visit followed by a public event on ‘Culture of memoir in Germany and Korea’ organized by the Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea as part of the 16th German-Korean Forum. 

The following two speakers held their principle speeches at the event: Mr. Moon-Soon Choi, county commissioner of Hwacheon County in the Province of Gangwon in South Korea and Mr. Rainer Eppelmann, Minister (off duty) and chairperson of the Federal Foundation for the Review of the SED Dictatorship. Five guests also participated in discussions: Mr. Robert Lebegern, director of the German-German museum in Mödlareuth, Ms. Christine Lieberknecht, member of the Landtag and minister president (off duty), Mr. Kyu-Sun Kim, county commissioner of Yeoncheon county, Dr. Gi-Woong Son, president of the Korean Institute for National Unification and Ricarda Steinbach, director of the Point Alpha Foundation. Dr. Bernhard Seliger, main representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Seoul, took charge of the event’s moderation.