BERLIN -- As Beijing Olympic Games approaches, Germany's English-language newspaper Deutsche Welle helped to deliver the good wishes from German political and business leaders, scholars and athletes on the quadrennial sports gala.

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"Over the coming weeks, we will be cheering on our athletes. I believe that the Olympics will bring more openness to China. We certainly have every reason to wish for that," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was quoted as saying by the latest issue of the monthly.

"We have to recognize what unbelievable achievements the country has made in the last decades," he added.

Wilfried Lemke, special adviser to the United Nations secretary- general on sports, said he was "looking forward to" attending the opening ceremony of the Games.

"By attending, I also wish to show my respect for the organizers and the people of China. My hope is a peaceful Olympics. I hope wholeheartedly that violence of all forms can be kept away from the Games," he said.

Eberhard Sandschneider, head of the Research Institute at the German Council on Foreign Relations, believed that the Beijing Games have "more than just symbolic importance" for China.

"In the country's 30th year of reforms, they cap a development that has surprised the world," the scholar on Sino-German relations said.

Juergen Hambrecht, CEO of BASF Group and chairman of the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business, also believed that the Games would be a good chance for China to showcase its successful development in the past several decades and would mean a lot to China's future as well.

World fencing champion Britta Heidemann, who has once lived in Beijing, said she "had been following the progress" of Beijing "very closely" over the past 10 years.

"I hope for a harmonious Olympics that demonstrate how sport can bring nations together. And that every participant, spectator or athlete, returns home with joyful feelings, so that they will be able to give people from their country new ideas on how to create a positive future," she was quoted as saying.