Eduardo González
King Felipe VI and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier traveled to Gernika on Friday, November 28, to pay tribute to the victims of the 1937 bombing by Nazi forces allied with Franco during the Spanish Civil War.
The third and final day of Steinmeier’s state visit to Germany took place in the Basque Country, where he was received by the Lehendakari (President of the Basque Government), Imanol Pradales, at the Ajuria-Enea Palace, the official residence of the President of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Later, the German president traveled to Gernika, where, accompanied by the King and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, he laid a wreath in the colors of the German flag in memory of the victims of the 1937 air raid. A minute of silence was then observed, during which Steinmeier stood before the memorial dedicated to the victims. Beside him were King Felipe VI, the Lehendakari (President of the Basque Government), and a large institutional representation from the Basque Country and the central government. Representatives from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the Socialist Party of the Basque Country (PSE-EE), the People’s Party (PP), and Sumar were present. EH Bildu did not attend.
This is the first German head of state to visit the Basque town since it was razed by the Condor Legion in 1937. In 1997, the then-President of Germany, Roman Herzog, publicly acknowledged, for the first time, the direct involvement of the German Condor Legion in the destruction of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, when Nazi troops were fighting on the Francoist side.
The ceremony took place in the Zallo Cemetery (built in 1891), which is part of Gernika’s memorial heritage and is especially linked to the memory of the bombing of April 26, 1937. The mausoleum dedicated to the victims was inaugurated in 1995 on the 58th anniversary of the bombing and contains a sarcophagus with the remains of victims of the bombing and the Spanish Civil War, a plaque with the emblem of the Euzko Gudarostea (Basque Army), a work by Eduardo Chillida, and the bell from the Church of San Juan, preserved after the church’s destruction. The bell rings every year on April 26 in memory of the massacre.
Separately, Steinmeier and the King met with survivors of the bombing, and the German president acknowledged his country’s historical responsibility for the massacre. “We do not want to, nor will we, forget the suffering that was caused here,” he declared. “I bow before the victims, and our condolences go out to the survivors, their families, and all those for whom the wounds of that time remain open and have not healed,” he added, as quoted on the website of the German Federal Presidency. In remembrance of the victims, the president stressed the need to “oppose all nationalism, hatred, and violence, but also to defend peace, freedom, and democracy.”
The two heads of state then visited the Gernika Peace Museum, accompanied by the mayor and president of the museum, José María Gorroño. The final stop in the Basque Country included a visit to downtown Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum in the Biscayan capital.