Obama Speech Plan At Berlin's Historic
Brandenburg Gate Draws German
Chancellor's Ire: A Negro, After All?
July 10, 2008
Berlin -- German Chancellor
Angela Merkel has signaled unease over the prospect of a
possible speech by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama
at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate, a spokesman said
Wednesday.
Merkel has "only limited understanding for using the
Brandenburg Gate as an election campaign backdrop, as it were,
and has expressed skepticism about pursuing such plans," Thomas
Steg, a spokesman for the chancellor, told reporters.
However, Steg stressed that the chancellor is "very happy"
for Obama to visit Germany and meet her and Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Berlin city officials said this week that members of the
Democratic candidate's campaign had contacted them about what
permission and security issues would need to be resolved before
Obama could speak in front of the monument.
The Obama campaign has refused to provide specifics on his
plans during an upcoming visit to Europe and the Middle East,
including the candidate's interest in a possible event at the
Brandenburg Gate.
"Senator Obama looks forward to his visit to Germany and his
opportunity to meet with the chancellor," Obama spokesman Bill
Burton said. "He has considered several sites for a possible
speech, and he will choose one that makes most sense for him and
his German hosts."
The gate stood for 28 years behind the Berlin Wall in
communist East Germany's heavily fortified border zone. Probably
the capital's best-known monument, it was once a symbol of
Germany's Cold War division and now stands for its
reunification.
Steg noted that the Brandenburg Gate has become "a place with
a particular exclusivity, intensity and symbolism" in view of
past speeches by sitting U.S. presidents and events such as a
large rally in solidarity with the United States after the Sept.
11, 2001, attacks.
As a result, he said Merkel has voiced "great skepticism as
to whether it is appropriate to bring an election campaign being
fought not in Germany but in the United States to the
Brandenburg Gate."
Steg said that "no German (chancellor) candidate would think
of using (Washington's) National Mall or Red Square in Moscow
for rallies, because it would be considered inappropriate."
He stressed that giving permission to use the venue is a
matter not for Merkel's government, but for Berlin city
authorities. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit said Tuesday that he
would be "delighted" for Obama to appear at the Brandenburg Gate
or elsewhere.
In a famous 1987 speech that used the gate as a backdrop,
President Reagan urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "open
this gate" and "tear down this wall."
In 1994, four years after German reunification, President
Clinton spoke on the other, formerly eastern, side of the gate _
declaring that "Berlin is free."
Organizers of Obama's campaign have said he is planning two
foreign trips this summer, including stops in the Middle East
and major European capitals, in an effort to boost his foreign
policy credentials as he prepares for the November election
against Republican John McCain.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said there had been
contacts with the German Embassy in Washington regarding Obama's
trip. He said that, while German officials suggested that he
could visit landmarks such as Berlin's Holocaust Memorial, the
Cold War-era Checkpoint Charlie border crossing and the
Brandenburg Gate, they had made no recommendations on any venue
for a possible Obama speech.
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