Germany-S. Africa-Mandela
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday paid tribute to South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday, calling him an "inspiration for generations".

across the world.

"Your leadership has given hope and optimism to your country and Africa as a whole," Merkel wrote in a congratulatory message for Mandela.

She stressed Mandela symbolized "freedom, fairness and reconciliation."
Meanwhile, German President Horst Koehler congratulated also the elder South African statesman, saying his life had inspired all those seeking cooperation and reconciliation in world politics.

"Out of the revolutionary grew a man of reconciliation in South Africa. Nelson Mandela carried hope out into the world," Koehler wrote in an article published in the daily Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

Throughout his long career as an activist, freedom fighter and politician, Mandela had "always remained faithful to his basic beliefs," he added.