On 8 May 1985, the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker spoke in the German Bundestag. It is not a matter of mastering the past, he said. Das kann man gar nicht. That cannot be done. The past cannot be changed afterwards or undone.
Then he said: Wer aber vor der Vergangenheit die Augen verschließt, wird blind für die Gegenwart. But whoever closes his eyes to the past becomes blind to the present.