In the long term Germany didn't need a finance minister who was absent during important negotiations in the European Council. But the chancellor strongly encouraged me to stay. And everything did work out for the best in the end.

An appeal to fear never finds an echo in German hearts.

In Germany I am not so famous.

It's quite a famous story that takes place on Christmas Eve and the Germans French and Scottish are trying to make peace one night and they bury their dead and they play football. I play a German opera singer in German which I never have so I am really excited about that.

I think that in a year I may retire. I cannot take my money with me when I die and I wish to enjoy it with my family while I live. I should prefer living in Germany to any other country though I am an American and am loyal to my country.

Our failure to properly deal with Germany and Japan early cost the world dearly later on. We dare not make the same mistake with China.

The rise of China as a new power is another great challenge for the US. Our failure to properly handle Germany and Japan earlier in the 20th century cost us and the world dearly. We must not make this same mistake with China.

The carrying out of the Potsdam Agreement has however been obstructed by the failure of the Allied Control Council to take the necessary steps to enable the German economy to function as an economic unit.

But as environment minister I am very interested in a thriving German automobile industry because I can only pay for the rising costs of environmental protection at home and abroad if there are people in Germany with jobs and who pay taxes.

More particularly having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.

You know in 1975 I couldn't get a job in New York City because I was American. The kitchens were predominantly run by French Swiss German and basically I got laughed at. I had education I had experience but got laughed at because I was American.

You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles.

When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said - and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded - 'It's like hair color. It's nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It's not a subject.' This was a very healthy attitude.

It's great that in the German language I've sold almost 30 million books. Isn't that amazing?

In fact it is amazing how much European films - Italian French German and English - have recovered a certain territory of the audience in their countries over the last few years.

The Fuhrer alone is the present and future German reality and its law. Learn to know ever more deeply: from now on every single thing demands decision and every action responsibility.