Even the Berlin police have adapted their language to the important visitors. She spoke of “royal weather” on Wednesday afternoon. And this weather was also good news for the hundreds of onlookers who came to see Britain’s King Charles III. seen with his own eyes during his visit to Germany.
The mere fact that the greeting with military honors was scheduled at the Brandenburg Gate shows the great importance attached to this visit. Charles III and his wife Camilla are the first guests of state to receive this honor. Such greetings usually take place in the garden of Bellevue Palace, the official residence of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
And overall, it’s a symbolic visit, meant to underscore the close ties between Britain and Germany. Since the trip to France fell through because of the protests against the pension reform, Charles’ first trip abroad since his appointment as king was “a great personal gesture” and “at the same time an important sign of Anglo-German relations,” said Steinmeier.
The “tangles of separation” should be over
In addition, Charles will be the first monarch to give a speech in the Bundestag. The fact that this will be the case at the end of March of all times gives the 74-year-old’s appearance a special meaning. Finally, on March 29, 2017, the British government informed the European Council that it was initiating Brexit. With Charles’s visit, the aim was to leave the “tangles of separation” behind, according to the German Federal President’s Office.
Charles is not only coming as king, but also as ambassador to Great Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. After the years of riots under Boris Johnson, he now wants to establish closer, stronger ties with the European Union. And the focus for the British government is the Franco-German axis.
German representatives are now emphasizing that the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has brought them closer together again. Steinmeier repeatedly points out that Germany and Great Britain are the biggest military supporters of the invaded country in Europe. Charles’s visit also reflects this: Together with Steinmeier, he will visit soldiers of the German-British Engineer Bridge Battalion 130 in Finowfurt north of Berlin on Thursday.
commemorating the victims
NS-Regimes
If this item on the program stands for the present, then on the third day there follows a look into the – dark – past. On Friday Charles will visit the memorial “Kindertransport – the last farewell” in Hamburg.
Then Charles wants to lay a wreath at the ruins of St. Nikolai. The church, which was largely destroyed in the Allied bombing raids during World War II, is today Hamburg’s central memorial for the victims of the Nazi regime.(clh/dpa)
