Wulff, Germany's first president born after WWII placed a garland at Yad Vashem in memory of Holocaust victims, promising his country will forever fight for Israel's safety.
Wulff entered his new position only a few months ago, and his visit to Israel is his first official visit outside of the European Union.
He said he requested that his first visit outside of Europe be to Israel, in order to express how the relationship between Germany and Israel is dear to his heart.
He added that Germany sees itself as responsible to ensure the existence and safety of Israel, a sense of responsibility he feels must be passed on from generation to generation. He explained that this is the reason he had requested to allow teens to join him on his visit.
German President Christian Wulff (left) in Yad Vashem
Peres thanked his guest for the visit, saying that it shows Israel where his intentions lay. He continued saying how important Israel's relationship with Germany is, adding that German leaders and the majority of the German people remember the past and feel that there should always be a unique bond between the countries. Peres said that both countries have a responsibility to educate children to remember the past and to also take responsibility for the future.
Regarding political issues, Wulff said he agrees with Peres that the best way to ensure Israel's security in the long run is through a just peace process in the area, based on a two-states principal with secured and defined borders.
Wulff promised to discuss the issue with the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Abu Mazen, during his visit to Bethlehem this week following his stay in Israel.
Wulff and Peres went on to visit Yad Vashem, accompanied by Yad Vashem Directorate Chairman Avner Shalev and Wulff's 17 year old daughter, Annalena. The German president participated in a memorial ceremony for the Holocaust victims, signed the guest book and placed a flower by the name engraving of his German hometown.
At the end of the ceremony Wulff read aloud what he had written in the guest book, saying that the "inconceivable crimes of the Holocaust force Germany and the Germans to act in order to ensure Israel's existence."
German president lauds Israeli scientific cooperation
Wulff visits Hebrew University campus where dozens of projects being carried out together with research institutions in Germany.
German universities and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are collaborating on a large number of research projects – from understanding brain function to following the demented with global positioning system devices to document their cognitive decline – because of scientific excellence on both sides.
So said German Federal Republic President Christian Wulff, who on Sunday visited the HU campus on Mount Scopus to meet scientists and administrators and learn about their cooperation in dozens of projects with the University of Heidelberg and other research institutions in Germany.
The 51-year-old president, who was elected just last summer, said he has followed such collaboration for some time as he previously was a member of the senate of the prestigious Max Planck Institute for the Advancement of Science. Wulff noted that Israel and Germany had scientific ties before they had diplomatic relations. It was pointed out that per capita, HU has the most joint research projects with German institutes.
An exhibition of original documents handwritten by Albert Einstein, previously on view in Jerusalem, is being shown in Germany, said Wulff, who added he was pleased that an additional agreement of scientific cooperation with Israeli academia will be signed next month.
HU president Prof. Menahem Ben-Sasson noted that a number of German researchers will receive honorary doctorates from his university in June. Ben-Sasson also presented Wulff with an English-language edition of a volume on the great Jewish physicist.
“Einstein once said that progress results from exchange of knowledge,” the German president said, with translation into English by an interpreter.
Wulff, who is on a state visit, said that “terror goes on in the world. We need to remember the victims of terror. It is very important for us to be concerned with the security of Israel.”
Dr. Noam Shoval of the HU’s geography department presented research by his and the University of Heidelberg’s scientists that uses GPS technology to trace the movements of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and related cognitive disorders.
Urban areas in Tel Aviv and the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan areas were the sites of such research, in which healthy and demented people in various stages of Alzheimer’s were fitted with GPS devices to see where they were going. Those with dementia walked within a limited circumference and a strange, irregular pattern compared to healthy subjects, said Shoval.
Auch studies could help in the diagnosis of diseases of cognitive decline, he said.
The research looked at how people move through space, what types of transportation they use, where they spend their time and how much of their time is spent at home. While the researchers are still gathering information on the project, they have already published 15 articles on their work.
Shoval noted that the GPS system could also be used to compare males and females.
“On Fridays, when healthy Israeli men should be helping their families to prepare Shabbat, they are more likely than women to go out,” he added with a smile.
The ability to understand a person’s intentions by “reading” his brain activity was discussed by Prof.
Eilon Vaadia, acting director of HU’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences. Two groups from Germany and two groups from Israel participated in the project.
German President Christian Wulff began his morning on Sunday with a first official visit to Israel since taking office. He was welcomed with an official ceremony held at the Presidential residence in Jerusalem, where he met with President Shimon Peres, who later accompanied him on a tour of the Holocaust museum Yad Vashem.
