Elder Bush honored for backing German unification

The Henry A. Kissinger Prize is bestowed by the American Academy in Berlin on an American or European who made an extraordinary contribution to trans-Atlantic relations. Last year--the prize's first--the honoree was Helmut Schmidt, the chancellor of West Germany in 1974-82.

Kissinger, who was born in Germany and served as U.S. secretary of state under Presidents Nixon and Ford, said in a statement that he was "profoundly moved" for Bush to get the award.

In accepting the honor, Bush said it was Germany itself that made the effort to become whole again after decades of being split in two.

"My underlying policy was that Germany should determine what it wanted to be," he said. "Germany had earned its place in Europe, free and whole."

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. ambassador to Germany in 1993-94, introduced Kissinger and Bush at the ceremony at the American Academy's grounds, on the shores of Wannsee lake.

Holbrooke told The Associated Press that Bush, who was president in 1989-93, lobbied for Germany's reunification against the wishes of his counterparts in Britain and France.

"There is no one who Germans are more appreciative of than President Bush," Holbrooke said.

Bush is in Berlin to celebrate the official opening of the new U.S. Embassy on Friday. The new embassy marks a return to its historic location on Pariser Platz, home to the Brandenburg Gate, where it stood until World War II.

"There is something so perfectly symmetrical about the opening of the embassy and President Bush receiving this award," Holbrooke said.