The Diplomat
The King and Queen of Spain made yesterday in Berlin the second day of their state visit to Germany, which included meetings with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, Elke Bündenbender, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and a wreath laying at the memorial to the “victims of war and tyranny”. The monarch highlighted the “spirit of fraternity” between the two countries, of which he said they share a vision of a more integrated EU.
Philip VI and Doña Letizia, who are accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and the Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Margarida Méndez, were officially received at Bellevue Palace, the seat of the Federal Presidency, by President Steinmeier and his wife, with whom they held parallel meetings.
The two heads of state then made an institutional statement to the media in which the King said that this state visit is “an excellent opportunity to give renewed impetus to our bilateral relationship, in the framework of the year of encounters between our two countries”, and expressed his wish that “it will contribute to deepening, if possible, the friendship between the Spanish and German people, and the collaboration between our institutions”.
The state visit, the first by a King and Queen of Spain to Germany in 36 years, coincides with a particularly active moment in bilateral relations. In early October, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz chaired the XXV Spanish-German Summit in A Coruña, the first since 2013. In addition, Sánchez paid an official visit to Berlin last week.
After their meeting with the president and his wife, the King and Queen moved to the Neue Wache (New Guard) building, the main memorial for the victims of war and tyranny, where they presided over a wreath in front of the bronze statue Mother with dead child, by German sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, where they stood in a minute of silence.
The building was erected between 1816 and 1818 to commemorate the fallen of the Napoleonic wars. From 1818 to 1918 it was the headquarters of the Royal Guard and, in 1931, the architect Heinrich Tessenow erected a memorial for the fallen of World War I there. Shortly before the end of World War II, the Neue Wache was seriously damaged by bombs, after which, during the period of the German Democratic Republic, it served as a memorial to the victims of fascism. Since 1993, with the reunification of Germany, the Neue Wache has been used as the Central memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the victims of war and tyranny.
In the afternoon, the King visited the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, a research institute in the field of physics and chemistry, where he was received by its president, Martin Stratmann, and by the head of the Interface Science Department at the Institute, the Spaniard Beatriz Roldán, and had a brief meeting with a small group of Spanish researchers. Around 2,000 Spanish scientists work in Germany.
Later, the King, accompanied by Albares and Xiana Méndez, held a meeting with Olaf Scholz at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin, just three days after the Chancellor himself received in Berlin the two champions of the “Iberian solution” for energy supply in Europe, President Pedro Sánchez and the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, with whom he discussed “the importance of accelerating the construction, within the EU, of energy corridors suitable for transporting gas and renewable hydrogen”.
At the end of yesterday, King Felipe and Queen Letizia returned to Bellevue Palace, where they were entertained at a state dinner in his honour. In his speech at the dinner, the King highlighted on Monday the “spirit of fraternity” that Spain and Germany maintain, with both countries sharing the same vision of an “increasingly integrated” European Union, which “has been and continues to be a community of destiny” that has helped “to overcome very difficult historical experiences” and “to find” the path to democracy, freedom and the rule of law.
The Monarch stressed that Germany is a “friend and ally, loved and respected“, while recalling the “personal component” of the trip. “Part of my family roots are intimately linked to these lands,” he recalled.
In this context, Felipe VI remarked that 2022 has marked “a new turning point” in the bilateral relations between Spain and Germany, which are, he said, “two close partners, with strong ties of friendship and also in economic, cultural and social matters” but which, above all, share “convictions, principles and values, such as those that unite us in the common project of the EU, as in the heart of the Atlantic Alliance”.
Today will begin with a working breakfast with a representation of German and Spanish businessmen and with a Spanish-German business meeting at the Bertelsmann Foundation. Afterwards, Philip VI will visit the Bundestag (German Parliament) and, at noon, the King and Queen will travel to Frankfurt, where they will inaugurate the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Spain is the guest country. In the evening, they will attend a reception in honor of the President of Germany and his wife, in response to the State Visit.
