Open Letter to Hellas, the Hellenic People and Alexis Tsipras in paritcular

Dear Hel­las,
Don’t give up. You’re not alo­ne. The­re are mil­li­ons of peo­p­le sup­port­ing you and your peo­p­le, even in my coun­try … in Ger­ma­ny. I am only one of them. But I share their anger, their des­pair, their tears and their hope – as I share your anger, your des­pair, your tears, and your hope. But I am also proud of you – proud of you and your peo­p­le, proud of your govern­ment, proud of Alexis Tspi­ras. Don’t bla­me him. He has given his best. He has fought for his coun­try. Per­haps he has lost a batt­le, but he won some­thing which mat­ters much more: digni­ty, faith, spi­rit, and beauty.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not meant to be cyni­cal. Cyni­cism is Ger­man politician’s part, not mine. I know about your cur­rent hard­ships, I know about your pain and the humi­lia­ti­ons you are forced to suf­fer. But I also know about your cou­ra­ge and your bra­ve heart, I know about your beau­ty and your digni­ty. And I am sure that you will sur­vi­ve this vio­la­ti­on as you sur­vi­ved seve­ral vio­la­ti­ons during the mil­len­nia of your existence.
Plea­se accept my gra­ti­tu­de and app­re­cia­ti­on for not having left us alo­ne. Be sure that Euro­pe needs you even more than you need Euro­pe. For you are the guar­di­ans and defen­ders of Europe’s soul and spi­rit. You are the suc­ces­sors of your ances­tors who inven­ted demo­cra­cy, liber­ty, huma­ni­ty, sci­ence, arts phi­lo­so­phy – all what is good about our civi­li­sa­ti­on. And to men­ti­on your sple­ndid heri­ta­ge has got not­hing to do with nost­al­gia or roman­ti­cism. No, it’s about a most cru­cial issue: It’s about the gra­vi­ty-spot of modern Euro­pe. For this is neither money nor stock-exch­an­ge, it is humanity.
Bu bes­i­des Hel­las, the­re seems to be no other coun­try in Euro­pe still cou­ra­ge­ous enough to defend the values and vir­tu­es of our cul­tu­re. The majo­ri­ty – inclu­ding Ger­ma­ny – sub­mit­ted ins­tead to the grace­l­ess domi­ni­on of glo­bal capi­ta­lism; and it seems to be their only desi­re to make you share their fate and ens­lave you to the same master.
You resis­ted, you fought for your sove­reig­n­ty, per­haps too late you rea­li­zed that tho­se who pre­ten­ded to be your part­ners undis­gu­i­sed show­ed up to be your enemies. There’s not­hing wrong with that. There’s not­hing to bla­me. Your only error was your con­fi­dence and faith – your firm belief in the values of our civi­li­sa­ti­on. That you were wrong is less a sym­ptom of your naï­ve and gent­le atti­tu­de but much more of the toxic patho­lo­gy within the mind-set of your creditors.
Hel­las, don’t give up! Tsi­pras, don’t give up! Stand for your values. I know that you have to pay a into­le­ra­ble pri­ze for stay­ing within the Euro-Zone. I know that we, your sup­port­ers in the rest of the world, have litt­le means to ever pay it back. But be sure: Your efforts will not have been in vain. You’ve re-lit the torch of truth and liber­ty in Euro­pe – and we shall spread the light. We shall honour your peo­p­le and your govern­ment for having remin­ded a mis­led and wea­ry con­ti­nent of its roots. You have encou­ra­ged us to not resign but fight for a world of less inju­s­ti­ce. You have shown us that it is pos­si­ble to alter a socie­ty which had been rui­ned for deca­des by cor­rup­ti­on and greed – even though the rest of Euro­pe actual­ly doesn’t want you to do this. Thank you, Greece! Thank you for kee­ping our faith ali­ve even in the­se dar­kest hours in the histo­ry of the Euro­pean Union.
Chris­toph Quarch, July 2015