Commencement Speaker

HARVARD OFFICIALS announced last week that West German President Richard von Weizsacker will be the principal speaker at this year's Commencement Exercises. In picking the figurehead leader of a European nation to deliver the prestigious address, the University for the second year in a row chose a speaker relatively unknown in the United States. Unfortunately, last year's speaker--Lord Carrington, the head of NATO--lived up to his modest pre-billing by delivering a longwinded and sparsely attended address. There is every reason to hope, however, that this year will be different. The selection of President von Weizsacker is an inspired choice.

The West German presidency is a ceremonial office and von Weizsacker on numerous occasions has commanded the necessary authority to counteract outbursts of hate in his country. This happened most recently after President Reagan's visit to a cemetery for German World War II veterans and SS officers, Bitburg. The visit justifiably caused an international furor, but one which led to a nationalistic reaction among Germans agitated by the attention brought to the Hitler years. In a widely praised and widely publicized speech, the 67-year old statesman took his nation--and his own political party--to task for trying to forget its Nazi past.

Von Weizsacker also holds himself to the same moral standard to which he holds his homeland. His father, Ernst von Weizsacker, held high posts in Hitler's Foreign Service and later was tried in Nuremberg for war crimes. But the younger von Wiezsacker, a member of the German Army, consistently calls that army's defeat a "liberation" from Nazi barbarism--much to the displeasure and discomfort of his fellow citizens.

Since these aspects of his past and his personality are what make the president such a provocative and challenging speaker, it is unfortunate that a biography of von Weizsacker prepared by the University's press office deliberately omitted any reference to his army service. It was foolish to try to deny his years in the German infantry, to skip them over as if they were just another item on a long curriculum vitae. But it also displayed an insensitivity to the very reasons that make von Weizsacker a man worthy of giving this year's commencement address and receiving an honorary degree: his call never to forget the past.