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| Queen's choice of Germany for final state visit seen as diplomatic coup | Queen's choice of Germany for final state visit seen as diplomatic coup |
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| For several days, Germans have been fed a daily stream of instructions on what to do should they happen to meet the Queen. “In the first instance, she is to be addressed as ‘Your Majesty’,” wrote the liberal daily the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “and thereafter with ‘Ma’am’, to rhyme with ‘gram’.” And “um Gottes willen, kein Selfies!” [for God’s sake, no selfies]. | For several days, Germans have been fed a daily stream of instructions on what to do should they happen to meet the Queen. “In the first instance, she is to be addressed as ‘Your Majesty’,” wrote the liberal daily the Süddeutsche Zeitung, “and thereafter with ‘Ma’am’, to rhyme with ‘gram’.” And “um Gottes willen, kein Selfies!” [for God’s sake, no selfies]. |
| If such newspaper guides are anything to go by, Germany is taking Queen Elizabeth’s seventh state visit to Germany, which begins on Tuesday, extremely seriously. “Lilac is a safe colour to wear if you meet her,” was another more specific crumb of advice in the tabloid Bild, which pointed out that it is also, appropriately, the tone that “results from mixing together the colours of the union jack”. | If such newspaper guides are anything to go by, Germany is taking Queen Elizabeth’s seventh state visit to Germany, which begins on Tuesday, extremely seriously. “Lilac is a safe colour to wear if you meet her,” was another more specific crumb of advice in the tabloid Bild, which pointed out that it is also, appropriately, the tone that “results from mixing together the colours of the union jack”. |
| Angela Merkel welcomed news of Her Majesty’s visit. “Queen Elizabeth is witness to the development of the relationship between Germany and Britain which is very friendly today,” the German chancellor said this week. And when she visits, “it’s always a big event”. But as this is expected to be the 89-year-old monarch’s last state visit, the interest is more heightened than usual. That their country should be the choice of her final foreign port of call is seen as immensely flattering to the majority of Germans. | Angela Merkel welcomed news of Her Majesty’s visit. “Queen Elizabeth is witness to the development of the relationship between Germany and Britain which is very friendly today,” the German chancellor said this week. And when she visits, “it’s always a big event”. But as this is expected to be the 89-year-old monarch’s last state visit, the interest is more heightened than usual. That their country should be the choice of her final foreign port of call is seen as immensely flattering to the majority of Germans. |
| There has been much speculation in Germany as to the reasons, including her husband the Duke of Edinburgh’s German roots – he was born into the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and went to school in southern Germany – and not least, her own strong German ancestry. Only during the first world war was the family name changed by her grandfather, George V, from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. | There has been much speculation in Germany as to the reasons, including her husband the Duke of Edinburgh’s German roots – he was born into the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and went to school in southern Germany – and not least, her own strong German ancestry. Only during the first world war was the family name changed by her grandfather, George V, from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. |
| Related: Angela Merkel: UK needs to work out what role it wants to play in Europe | Related: Angela Merkel: UK needs to work out what role it wants to play in Europe |
| But as the German socialite and most prominent royal watcher, Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau pointed out to readers of Bild in a five-part series, Die Queen und die Deutschen: “It is not the Queen who decides when and where she travels, but the British government … and Downing Street has very concrete reasons why it should want to send the Queen – the secret weapon of British diplomacy – to Germany.” | But as the German socialite and most prominent royal watcher, Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau pointed out to readers of Bild in a five-part series, Die Queen und die Deutschen: “It is not the Queen who decides when and where she travels, but the British government … and Downing Street has very concrete reasons why it should want to send the Queen – the secret weapon of British diplomacy – to Germany.” |
| Historians have been wheeled out in their droves to explain how her first, 11-day, 18-city visit in 1965 was seen as a major contribution in healing the wounds caused by the second world war. In Britain some critical voices called it an insult to Britain’s war dead. “It was highly symbolic … a sign that Germany was once again being viewed as a normal country,” said historian Simone Derix, who has researched the topic in depth. At the same time there were fears among officials “that some Germans in their enthusiasm to see her would let slip a ‘heil’,” she said. In the end, they shouted: “E-li-sa-beth!” | Historians have been wheeled out in their droves to explain how her first, 11-day, 18-city visit in 1965 was seen as a major contribution in healing the wounds caused by the second world war. In Britain some critical voices called it an insult to Britain’s war dead. “It was highly symbolic … a sign that Germany was once again being viewed as a normal country,” said historian Simone Derix, who has researched the topic in depth. At the same time there were fears among officials “that some Germans in their enthusiasm to see her would let slip a ‘heil’,” she said. In the end, they shouted: “E-li-sa-beth!” |
| In the following years the cold war made her visits just as necessary, not least after prime minister Margaret Thatcher was quoted in 1987, two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, as saying: “I love Germany so much, that I’m glad there are two of them.” Those wars may be over, and Germany long since reunited, but nowadays, said Schönburg, “the anxieties are quite similar”, namely “London’s fear of … an EU which fuses into a super-state, in which the individual states lose their independence.” | In the following years the cold war made her visits just as necessary, not least after prime minister Margaret Thatcher was quoted in 1987, two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, as saying: “I love Germany so much, that I’m glad there are two of them.” Those wars may be over, and Germany long since reunited, but nowadays, said Schönburg, “the anxieties are quite similar”, namely “London’s fear of … an EU which fuses into a super-state, in which the individual states lose their independence.” |
| David Cameron’s decision to “piggy-back” on the visit, when he attends a state banquet with the Queen and the German president, Joachim Gauck, on Wednesday evening, has certainly raised eyebrows. Downing Street insists his trip follows an invitation from the German government. But observers in London and Berlin view it as a deliberate exercise to reinforce the countries’ commonalities ahead of crucial EU talks Cameron is due to hold with Merkel over Britain’s future relationship with Brussels, before an in/out referendum on the UK’s membership in the EU. | David Cameron’s decision to “piggy-back” on the visit, when he attends a state banquet with the Queen and the German president, Joachim Gauck, on Wednesday evening, has certainly raised eyebrows. Downing Street insists his trip follows an invitation from the German government. But observers in London and Berlin view it as a deliberate exercise to reinforce the countries’ commonalities ahead of crucial EU talks Cameron is due to hold with Merkel over Britain’s future relationship with Brussels, before an in/out referendum on the UK’s membership in the EU. |
| Related: Brexit – what would happen if Britain left the EU? | Related: Brexit – what would happen if Britain left the EU? |
| Certainly, when the Queen is greeted by Merkel on the steps of her cuboid chancellery building on Wednesday morning, the pictures will, hope diplomats on both sides, speak volumes about the British-German relationship. Merkel has said she will do all she can to try and keep Britain in the EU. Says Schönburg: “The Queen, simply through her very presence, is supposed to remind us Germans just how poor Europe would be without Britain.” | Certainly, when the Queen is greeted by Merkel on the steps of her cuboid chancellery building on Wednesday morning, the pictures will, hope diplomats on both sides, speak volumes about the British-German relationship. Merkel has said she will do all she can to try and keep Britain in the EU. Says Schönburg: “The Queen, simply through her very presence, is supposed to remind us Germans just how poor Europe would be without Britain.” |
| One commentator from the leftwing paper Taz suggested that another effect of the encounter might be to finally put Merkel, often referred to as the “Queen of Europe”, in her place, because “after all, when Elizabeth became Queen, Merkel was not even born yet”. | One commentator from the leftwing paper Taz suggested that another effect of the encounter might be to finally put Merkel, often referred to as the “Queen of Europe”, in her place, because “after all, when Elizabeth became Queen, Merkel was not even born yet”. |
| The packed schedule of the three-day visit will on Wednesday see the Queen and Prince Philip greeted with military honours by President Gauck at his residence, Schloss Bellevue,taking a boat up the river Spree to the chancellery, where the Queen will hold talks with Merkel, before laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. | The packed schedule of the three-day visit will on Wednesday see the Queen and Prince Philip greeted with military honours by President Gauck at his residence, Schloss Bellevue,taking a boat up the river Spree to the chancellery, where the Queen will hold talks with Merkel, before laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. |
| At the Technical University she will listen to the annual Queen’s Lecture, this year delivered by the outgoing director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor – one of the most popular Britons in Germany since his curation last year of an exhibition on 600 years of German history, and the recent announcement that he will take over as a chief adviser on the contents of the new cultural palace in Berlin, the Humboldt Forum. | At the Technical University she will listen to the annual Queen’s Lecture, this year delivered by the outgoing director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor – one of the most popular Britons in Germany since his curation last year of an exhibition on 600 years of German history, and the recent announcement that he will take over as a chief adviser on the contents of the new cultural palace in Berlin, the Humboldt Forum. |
| Related: David Cameron under pressure to set out demands for EU reform | Related: David Cameron under pressure to set out demands for EU reform |
| On Thursday, she will travel to Frankfurt, the country’s financial centre, where the underlying message will be the strong business ties between Britain and Germany which many say would be threatened by a Brexit. But the most poignant item on the Queen’s schedule will undoubtedly be her first ever visit to a former concentration camp when she goes to Bergen-Belsen on Friday. The camp was liberated by British troops in April 1945. | On Thursday, she will travel to Frankfurt, the country’s financial centre, where the underlying message will be the strong business ties between Britain and Germany which many say would be threatened by a Brexit. But the most poignant item on the Queen’s schedule will undoubtedly be her first ever visit to a former concentration camp when she goes to Bergen-Belsen on Friday. The camp was liberated by British troops in April 1945. |
| The visit – taking place at the Queen’s own request according to the British embassy, will see her meet both survivors and liberators of the camp – is being kept deliberately low-key. But again, it will usefully serve to reinforce the bond. Details of everything – from what she and Philip will eat (guinea fowl and venison), where she’ll sleep (the fact that his room is reportedly at the other end of the corridor from hers in Hotel Adlon), to the colour of her Bentley, which was transported to Berlin at the weekend – are being pored over. | The visit – taking place at the Queen’s own request according to the British embassy, will see her meet both survivors and liberators of the camp – is being kept deliberately low-key. But again, it will usefully serve to reinforce the bond. Details of everything – from what she and Philip will eat (guinea fowl and venison), where she’ll sleep (the fact that his room is reportedly at the other end of the corridor from hers in Hotel Adlon), to the colour of her Bentley, which was transported to Berlin at the weekend – are being pored over. |
| One celebrity magazine claims to have seen the protocol note which says the Queen did not respond to the German query as to whether she preferred to take the lift rather than using the stairs. And her personal cook in the Adlon said, on being asked if there was any food she wished to avoid: “I was told anything goes, which I think is quite charming.” | One celebrity magazine claims to have seen the protocol note which says the Queen did not respond to the German query as to whether she preferred to take the lift rather than using the stairs. And her personal cook in the Adlon said, on being asked if there was any food she wished to avoid: “I was told anything goes, which I think is quite charming.” |
| Everyone from porcelain manufacturers to toy makers are exploiting the event for all its worth. The Berlin branch of Lego has even produced a limited edition Queen figure. The fascination is easily explained, say German royal watchers, by the fact that the country does not have its own royal family to admire. From the butler who will serve her tea on her arrival at the Hotel Adlon, where the royal entourage will move into 70 rooms on two floors, to the organ grinders outside on Pariser Platz, everyone has their own memories of her last visit in 2004. And few have forgotten how she briefly fell asleep during a lecture on medicine and magnets in Düsseldorf, an incident which did nothing to lessen the love. | Everyone from porcelain manufacturers to toy makers are exploiting the event for all its worth. The Berlin branch of Lego has even produced a limited edition Queen figure. The fascination is easily explained, say German royal watchers, by the fact that the country does not have its own royal family to admire. From the butler who will serve her tea on her arrival at the Hotel Adlon, where the royal entourage will move into 70 rooms on two floors, to the organ grinders outside on Pariser Platz, everyone has their own memories of her last visit in 2004. And few have forgotten how she briefly fell asleep during a lecture on medicine and magnets in Düsseldorf, an incident which did nothing to lessen the love. |