January 27, 2006
Johannes Rau, the former German president who urged his country to open up to foreigners and promoted deeper relations with Israel, has died at the age of 75. Rau had suffered from persistent health problems in recent years. During his 1999-2004 term as president, Rau paid particular attention to maintaining Germany's close ties to Israel, rooted in the countries' shared history of the Holocaust. In 2000, he became the first person to speak German in the Israeli parliament, making an emotional plea for forgiveness. "With the people of Israel watching, I bow in humility before those murdered, before those who don't have graves where I could ask them for forgiveness," Rau said. "I am asking for forgiveness for what Germans have done, for myself and my generation, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, whose future I would like to see alongside the children of Israel".
