English translations of speeches by Federal German President

Heiko Hebig has an entry:

bq. Are all English translators in Germany on strike? Surely Horst Köhler has delivered more than one speech.

He links to this page of English speeches by Horst Köhler.

They have his inaugural speech to the Bundestag and his speech on October 3rd – very prompt in the latter case. Curiously, the date is given in American (10/03/2004) – I’m not sure what good this does. The translation has a slightly wooden and non-English quality (‘Our thanks goes to you…’):

bq. Nevertheless, our country should be worth something to us. Notwithstanding our current dif­ficulties, the Basic Law and our social market economy represent a particularly successful and peaceful phase in our country’s history, as President Rau mentioned.

Presumably Heiko was looking for material to send English-speakers. I doubt the Bundespräsident has an inhouse translator though, quite apart from the fact that these are fairly rare today even in industry, and we outhouse translators (to coin a phrase) shouldn’t be going on strike, or should we?

Of course, at least before he took office, Köhler was discouraged from speaking, but there are certainly a few more gems on the German part of the website,albeit only the same two in French and Spanish.

Di 27.07.2004 Toast von Bundespräsident Horst Köhler anlässlich des Mittagessens in Schloß Gottorf
Mo 19.07.2004 Grußwort von Bundespräsident Horst Köhler beim Empfang aus Anlass des 60. Jahrestages des 20. Juli 1944
Do 15.07.2004 Tischrede von Bundespräsident Horst Köhler anlässlich seines Nachbarschaftsbesuches in Polen beim Mittagessen, gegeben vom polnischen Staatspräsidenten Aleksander Kwasniewski
Mi 14.07.2004 Grußwort von Bundespräsident Horst Köhler bei seinem Antrittsbesuch beim Bundesverfassungsgericht
Fr 09.07.2004 Grußwort von Bundespräsident Horst Köhler beim Besuch des Freistaats Sachsen
Do 01.07.2004 Wir können in Deutschland vieles möglich machen
So 23.05.2004 Ansprache von Horst Köhler vor der Bundesversammlung nach seiner Wahl zum Bundespräsidenten

Whether some of these speeches are regarded as of less international interest or whether only a few speeches are ever translated I don’t know.

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