70 years of the German-Italian recruitment agreement Alumnus Sandro M. Moraldo visits Bellevue Palace
Celebrating the 70th anniversary of the German-Italian recruitment agreement
December 20, 2025 marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the German-Italian agreement on the recruitment of workers, which brought the first so-called guest workers to Germany. To celebrate this anniversary, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier invited guests to the event “Deutsche Vita – Kleine und große Geschichte(n)” (German Vita – Small and Big Stories) at Bellevue Palace. Among the guests was Italian Heidelberg alumnus and German studies professor Sandro M. Moraldo. “As a former guest worker's child whose parents emigrated to Heidelberg in the mid-1950s, it was a special honor for me to attend the event,” he says.
The agreement signed in Rome, which served as a model for further bilateral recruitment agreements with countries such as Spain, Greece, and Turkey, brought several million Italians to Germany in the following decades. It took a long time for Germany to recognize the remarkable achievements of the people who came here at that time, said Federal President Steinmeier at the event on November 15, 2025. That is precisely why it is important to him to make it clear that the success story of post-war Germany “also has a migration background.” Together with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Steinmeier presented the “Presidential Prize for Municipal Cooperation between Germany and Italy” to cities and municipalities in both countries during the event. He then invited guests to a panel discussion moderated by TV presenter Markus Lanz on “Old and New Mobility in Europe – 70 Years of the German-Italian Recruitment Agreement and Scientific Exchange Today” and to a reception.
Prof. Dr. Sandro M. Moraldo, whom Steinmeier awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2022 for his significant contribution to German-Italian academic exchange and mutual understanding of languages and cultures, is a professor of German studies at the University of Bologna in Italy. He grew up in Heidelberg as one of three sons of an Italian couple who had come to Germany under the recruitment agreement. He studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Florence as well as at the University of California, Berkeley (USA), and received his doctorate in general and comparative literature from Ruperto Carola. In 1989, he returned to his parents' homeland, where he has lived with his family ever since and has been committed to promoting exchange between his two home countries – for example, as a key co-founder of the Italian HAI club HAIT and the association “Alumni DAAD Italy,” of which he was chairman from 2017 to 2025, or as the initiator of a lecturer exchange with the Institute for German as a Foreign Language (IDF) at Heidelberg University.
The recruitment agreement is not only a historic act, but also the foundation of a profound human experience that has shaped generations, including his own, says Sandro Moraldo. Despite having little formal education, his father had an unwavering desire to integrate and was convinced that language was the key to true integration. “My parents' experiences and the values they instilled in me enabled me to pursue an exceptional educational path in Germany and ‘return’ to Italy in 1989.” As a professor at the University of Bologna, he sees himself as a kind of bridge between the two nations. “My experience as a ‘guest worker's child’ who achieved academic success has given me a deep sense of European citizenship.”
