Apparently Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany does not find the idea “odd†any longer: At her invitation, President Obama will finally get his chance to speak at Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate this month.
The White House announced on Wednesday morning that Mr. Obama would deliver an address on the importance of enduring ties between the United States and Germany, and of the trans-Atlantic alliance more broadly, when he visits Berlin on June 19. That will be the final stop on a trip that also takes him to Northern Ireland for the annual meeting of the G-8 industrialized countries.
Mr. Obama had planned to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, an imposing 18th century monument that has come to symbolize German unity and European peace, on a visit during his 2008 campaign for president. But he settled on a different location after a spokesman for Ms. Merkel publicly complained that she found the prospect “odd†and had “little sympathy for the Brandenburg Gate being used for electioneering.â€
An estimated 200,000 people filled the Tiergarten park that July to hear Mr. Obama, then a United States senator, for what would be the largest crowd of his 2008 campaign.
Since then, as president Mr. Obama has forged a close working relationship with Ms. Merkel, despite his administration’s differences over Germany’s austerity policies for the countries in the euro zone. He will meet with her in Berlin during the visit there.
