Let me tell you about my Europe. When I was in college the Rhine was still a border. The checkpoint on the bridge was not threatening, but still an annoyance. When I was out of college in the late ‘80s, a friend tried something completely new: he wanted to know what European property rights could do for him, so he bought a house on the other side of the bridge. Houses were less expensive in France. What a sensation! How would the French react to an invasion of German homeowners? Previously, only German tanks had invaded France.

The late 1980s seem like a century ago. Today the French love German homeowners on their territory; their housing prices appreciate faster. Borders are a distant memory, and their absence has changed lives – mine included. These days, many of my friends in Germany belong to bi-national couples. Companies try to recruit multinational and trans-European workforces. They call us “Generation Erasmus” after a popular intra-European student exchange program. The next generation will not even need exchange programs. Europe and its political union will be their home, as if it has always been that way.

The EU can mean many things to many people. To me it means freedom and opportunity, and a feeling of acceptance. Not of small value for a child of postwar Germany. The EU makes German power acceptable to its neighbors. It allows the French to lead. It helped overcome authoritarian rule in Portugal, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries. It helped the Brits and the Irish see eye-to-eye and finally develop a shared strategy to end the civil war in Northern Ireland. Europe has created wealth and, equally important, a sense of shared destiny.

At 50, herzlichen Glückwunsch, Europa!