VISITING GERMANY: BERLIN – Welcome Among Friends – President Obama Visits Berlin

Germany welcomed US President Barack Obama and his family for an official visit to Berlin on June 18 and 19. His official program on Wednesday was densely packed with appointments, including a meeting with Federal President Joachim Gauck at Bellevue Palace, political talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Federal Chancellery, and a festive dinner at Charlottenburg Palace.

The highlight of the visit came in the afternoon, when President Obama spoke on the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate before an audience of over 4,000 people. 

The visit to the capital city, at the invitation of Chancellor Merkel, served to underscore and further deepen the close, friendly partnership between the United States and Germany. “For me it is beyond question,” Chancellor Merkel said at the Brandenburg Gate before President Obama spoke, “the transatlantic partnership is also in the 21st century the key to freedom, security and prosperity for all. Also in the 21st century there is no better partner for each other than America and Europe.” Transatlantic relations, according to both leaders, are considered the most relevant for Germany and the United States. 

Topping the agenda for the bilateral meeting between Merkel and Obama were the planned free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, as well as international crises, such as the conflict in Syria. The surveillance of the Internet by US intelligence was also a topic. Speaking at a joint press conference after their meeting in the Federal Chancellery, Chancellor Merkel called their cooperation friendly and trusting. “They were good and as always very open discussions,” Merkel said. 

President Obama thanked Chancellor Merkel for the invitation to visit Berlin as well as for the ability to address the people of Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate, calling it a humbling privilege. “I’m grateful for our alliance. I’m grateful for our friendship.” 

Strengthening partnership

A day after US and European leaders meeting at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland announced the launch date for negotiations on a free trade agreement, Chancellor Merkel and President Obama clearly expressed their commitment to the effort. 

 On the issue of the surveillance of the Internet by US intelligence, the two leaders spoke at length about the new opportunities and the new threats posed by the Internet. As enemies are finding completely new ways to threaten free democratic basic order, Germany appreciates the cooperation with the United States on security issues, Merkel said. However, she also pointed out the need for proportionality in acquiring necessary information. “The issue of balance, of the issue of proportionality is something that we will continue to talk about with each other and for which we have agreed on an exchange of information between our staffs as well as between the staffs of the German Interior Ministry and the respective US offices.” 

In dealing with international matters, President Obama stressed the importance of the transatlantic relationship and the US-German relationship. “The relationship with Europe remains the cornerstone of our freedom and our security” Obama said, pointing out that “Europe is our partner in almost everything we do.” The United States and Germany are both active in Afghanistan and will also handle the new process of the transfer of responsibility together, just as they dealt with the time period of heavy military conflicts and the training of Afghan forces together, Merkel said. On the Middle East, the Chancellor called on the parties to take advantage of the Kerry Initiative for restarting peace talks.

On Iran, Merkel said Germany would continue to work together with the United States on the nuclear program issue. Both leaders agree that the bloodshed in Syria must stop, though there is no agreement on the possibility of weapons deliveries to the rebels. As a matter of principle, Germany does not deliver weapons to civil war regions, according to Merkel. Germany does, however, want to play a constructive role in the political process, in humanitarian aide and in the discussion over “the right way.” 

Brandenburg Gate – symbol of freedom

  The highlight of President Obama’s visit to the capital was his speech at the Brandenburg Gate in the afternoon, in front of some 4,500 people who braved unusually high temperatures on Pariser Platz. “The Brandenburg Gate, this gate that had been closed for decades and open again since 1989, is for our whole country, for this city and for me personally the symbol of our freedom,” Merkel said before Obama spoke. “America played an exceedingly large role in the fact that the Brandenburg Gate was transformed from a place of division into a symbol of unity and justice and freedom.”

President Obama referenced President John F. Kennedy’s historic speech in West Berlin in 1963 and other US Presidents who have spoken at the Brandenburg Gate, saying he was proud to be able to stand on the eastern side to pray tribute to the past. He also praised to the resilience and determination of Berliners and Germans in bravely seeking freedom for East Germany, saying this is the spirit of Berlin. “If anybody asks if President Kennedy’s words ring true today, let them come to Berlin, for here they will find the people who emerged from the ruins of war to reap the blessings of peace; from the pain of division to the joy of reunification. 

And here, they will recall how people trapped behind a wall braved bullets, and jumped barbed wire, and dashed across minefields, and dug through tunnels, and leapt from buildings, and swam across the Spree to claim their most basic right of freedom. ”

 

Source: German Missions in the United States

 

German Missions in the United States

 

You can read the text of President Obama’s speech here.

 

VISITING GERMANY: BERLIN – Barack Obama to visit Berlin