• Monarchy The Europeanist wink of Carlos III in his first state visit as king
  • Profile The monarch who has waited an eternity to renew the Crown

He wanted the carom of fate – that is, the forced suspension of the visit to France – that the first trip abroad of Carlos III as king will have as destination the last country that welcomed his mother on a state visit like the one he begins this Wednesday: Germany. It was 2015 when an elderly but still full of faculties Elizabeth II starred in her fifth stop in Berlin dressed in the highest diplomatic rank that governs the League of Nations. By then, the bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Germany was already fully normalized, something to which each of the visits that the monarch had made to the country of her ancestors had contributed, especially the historical one of 1965 that served decisively to heal wounds and turn the page to decades of deep disagreements and the most stark confrontations in the two great world wars.

Today Charles III will arrive in Berlin in a very different historical context. And for the authorities of the two countries it is a magnificent opportunity to strengthen bilateral friendship, well established, in a relationship that is still being drawn, marked on the one hand by the British abandonment of the community club and, on the other, by the need to intensify collaboration in matters such as security and defense. All at a time when the Old Continent is once again facing the ghosts of security and peace threatened by the Russian challenge that Ukraine today has as a board of destabilization.

For King Charles, this three-day visit seems especially sweet. The two delegations have made an effort so that the agenda is marked by the great passion of the monarch: environmentalism and the fight against climate change. Many of the events planned in both Berlin and Hamburg will be oriented, in this line, to the demand for green energies, to value the latest advances of the industry for the reduction of C02 and to the support of policies that mitigate the environmental emergency. As Prince of Wales, eternal heir to a throne that he seemed never to occupy, the son of Elizabeth II was often misunderstood in his role as an environmental activist. In this, time, however, ended up proving him right.

Special honours

But Charles III will also enjoy the special entertainment of the German leadership. Thus, he will become the first head of state received at the welcoming ceremony with the highest military honors in a scenario as emblematic as the Brandenburg Gate – the usual thing is that the act takes place in the Bellevue Palace, the residence of the President of the Republic. And this Thursday he will also be the first British sovereign to deliver a speech to the Bundestag.

Elizabeth II was about to address the Federal Chamber in 1992. But, as an obvious sign of how slow and complex it was for London and Berlin to twist each other without misgivings, it seems that the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl put all kinds of objections to the monarch being granted such an honor because of the stinging that the sticks in the wheels that the United Kingdom had put years before German reunification still caused. Carlos would, as heir, in 2020.

However, Elizabeth II always enjoyed high popularity in the country from which the entire dynasty originates. When he set foot for a few hours in West Berlin in May 1965, more than a million Germans crowded the streets through which he traveled, in a show of curiosity and affection only comparable to that which had in the same city still divided the president of the United States John F. Kennedy.

World War II

For decades, every time the English queen traveled to Germany, the media stirred up the debate about whether she should apologize for the British role in the bombing of some cities in the throes of World War II. There was never such an apology from the tenant of Buckingham, who for her part would never forget how the popularity of her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Elizabeth, skyrocketed over her decision to have the whole family remain in England while the Nazi regime's sustained bombing of the United Kingdom took place. What did occur with each trip of Elizabeth II to democratic and pro-European Germany was a profusion of gestures of reconciliation between the two peoples of enormous symbolic charge. Something that continues to this day. Charles III and his wife, Camilla, will visit St. Nikolai Memorial in Hamburg, a church bombed by the Allies.

The anecdotal always adds great attention in visits with such pomp. And in this case there is enormous interest in knowing what will be the gift with which the Presidency of the Republic will give its illustrious guests. Because, according to Der Spiegel, it has now been known that senior German officials found it an exaggerated waste what they spent on the two magnificent horses they gave to Elizabeth II on her 1978 visit. It seems that Walter Scheel accepted that it was well worth scratching his pocket if the most emblematic woman in the world was satisfied in this way.

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  • Germany
  • Berlin
  • United Kingdom
  • London
  • Ukraine
  • Ministry of Defence
  • France