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For the 13th German Seniors’ Day in Hanover
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has described the best possible life for people in old age as one of the great tasks of the future.
Hanover – Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has described the best possible life for people in old age as one of the great tasks of the future. “Solitude in particular is one of the downsides of an aging society in which the worlds of young and old are getting further and further apart, at least that is what it seems at first glance,” said Steinmeier on Wednesday at the opening of the 13th German Seniors’ Day in Hanover , which is being held online in view of the corona infection situation. “I think of those who struggle with poverty in old age. Participation is hardly possible for many. “
Steinmeier emphasized: “The elderly are not a homogeneous group. To put it bluntly: the old ones don’t exist. ” Images of old age are subject to a strong change: “I am convinced that we have to look at old age and” the elderly “in a much more differentiated manner,” he warned. Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) said, for example, with a view to volunteering: “Without the generation 60 plus, little is possible in our society.”
Many questions were all the more urgent as the baby boomer generation was on the threshold of old age, said Steinmeier: “How do we make pensions secure? How do we ensure that older people can keep up in a digital world? How do we manage that they can live as independently as possible? ” Weil also urged senior-friendly living – and “dignified, self-determined” aging.
The Seniors’ Day was originally planned as a face-to-face event – despite the increasing number of corona infections. Reason speaks in favor of giving up the presence, said the head of the Federal Working Group of Senior Citizens’ Organizations, the former SPD chairman Franz Müntefering. More than 90 digital events are planned until Friday, for example on sports for people with dementia, loneliness in old age, senior studies and preparing for retirement in good time.
In view of the pandemic, Steinmeier made an appeal: “Get vaccinated, and as soon as possible.” Booster vaccinations are the order of the day, especially for older people. “If they are protected as well as possible, then we will also be able to avoid the hardships of last winter: isolation, loneliness, lonely death. It mustn’t come to that again. “ (dpa)
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