Use the Brandenburg Gate HOW? Merkel looks askance at Obama campaign idea

Among foreign leaders, she can be considered President Bush's main squeeze -- literally.

Indeed, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, alone among women atop major governments, is his only squeeze. (Remember the grief he took two years ago in Strelna, Russia, when he grabbed Merkel from behind at the shoulders and gave her a friendly, but most undiplomatic, squeeze?)

Along comes a campaigning Barack Obama, looking for a picturesque and symbolic backdrop for a possible speech in her Berlin -- an address that can only be assumed to include elements unhelpful to John McCain, Bush's choice in the presidential race across the Atlantic. And one that can only suggest another link to John F. Kennedy.

Perhaps it's no surprise that she is looking askance at the idea of using the famed Brandenburg Gate for a political speech.

Thomas Steg, a spokesman for the chancellor, told reporters that Merkel has "only limited understanding for using the Brandenburg Gate as an election campaign backdrop, as it were, and has expressed skepticism about pursing such plans."

(Merkel was winding up an extended visit in Japan with Bush and the other leaders of the Group of 8 major industrialized nations at their annual summit -- sans bear hugs, squeezes or other outward signs of affection.)

To be sure, Berlin has been host to major speeches by major American political figures: Kennedy declared his solidarity with a Cold War-torn Berlin with his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in June, 1963 at the Schoneberg Rathaus. And Ronald Reagan famously called on Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" as the American president stood at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, as the Cold War was, it turned out, about to end.

Seven years later, Bill Clinton used the gate as his backdrop -- but this time from the eastern side in what had been Communist East Berlin and declared that "Berlin is free."

Obama's plans remain very much up in the air, with his campaign contemplating a trip or trips that could take him to the Middle East and Europe.

But to the Brandenburg Gate? Not necessarily.

Given its history -- sitting as it did just east of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War, symbolic of a divided Berlin and then of a reunified city -- 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, according to the Associated Press.

Besides, he said, "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."

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo of Merkel and Bush: Summit Photo Japan via Getty Images

Photo of Brandenburg Gate in 2002: Sean Gallup / Getty Images

Comments

[Steve Real]

I think the Brandenburg Gates is a venue with historic and great significance.
Berlin can not vote in an American election.

If Berlin wants to cast their vote for Barack Obama?
This is their chance to vote with their hearts.

Open the Gates.
Let the man speak !

for I too am:
"Ich bin ein Berliner !"

[Christopher Procyk]

Just another little tidbit of his inexperience and naievty showing here. Using a Foreign Countries national monument as an election rally? That's not what Kennedy or Reagan used it for. This is a completely inappropriate idea that doesn't really respect our German friends, and panders to the voters once more, now showing that he is deliberately trying to make people think he's JFK (Which he is most certainly not). If this is his idea of Foreign knowledge I can't wait to see McCain punch his lights out in November.

[dave]

ich bin ein campaigner!

[Sandra]

Yuck, Steve ! Please, don't make me hurl ! Obama's the biggest fake political candidate we've ever had ! Good for Chancellor Merkel for seeing right through him.

Obama's trying his hardest to fashion himself into a JFK or MLK, but through image and speech alone, not actions. Too bad Lloyd Bentsen passed away. He knew Jack Kennedy, and Senator Obama is no Jack Kennedy.

Has Obama even been to Germany before ?? Maybe Tony Rezko took him on a trip when they were close pals.

[Mike]

The U.S. Presidential Election isn't performed in Berlin, but it isn't performed so much on U.S. soil either. Rather, it is an affair for the U.S. television broadcasting airwaves. Given the cultural imperialism of U.S. television (for good or bad), Berlin would certainly be an outpost of the Election 2008 arena. Obama could campaign on the moon and still be within the bounds of what is American.

[Steve Real]

Let’s see…
GW drew 30,000 protestors when he went to Berlin.
(Nope he ain’t that popular
at all sorry)

hmmm…
Let’s compare that to Barack Obama who is expected to draw over 300,000 Berliners and (guests from across Europe) at the Brandenburg Gates.

If I was running Berlin?
Why would I turn down all the business that will be generated by this one time event?
I don’t think Berlin is that stupid when it comes to making an investment for the future…
Do you?

Angela Merkel is playing domestic politiks by squelsching the free politikal expression of the German peoples.
Does not the Brandenburg Gates represent freedom for all men?

Then why would you close the Gates for Barack Obama?

I say:
Open the Gates!
Let the man speak

[Mark Schwartz]

As an Obama supporter, I say it would be unwise to have Obama give any big speeches in Germany. It would be better to have smaller gatherings in Germany and larger ones in London and Paris. The campaign should understand why this is. If they don't, then they aren't as history or internet savvy as I thought they were.

[Karma]

Does Obama have an original thought of his own?

He stole MLKs tone.....JFKs words.....and Cesar Chavez' battle cry....and now he has to steal other President's thunder in Germany.

Ugh!

[Padraig]

Ok... please note that when you use transliteration from English to German and say, "Ich bin ein Berliner" you are actually saying you are a German pastry. It's the same as saying in English, "I'm a Danish" instead of saying "I'm Danish". The correct way to say you are from Berlin is to say "Ich bin Berliner".

I know the British comedian Eddie Izzard has talked about this before, but still the point remains the same.

That said, I think it is very pretentious for a US presidential candidate to want to use the Brandenburg Tor as a backdrop for their political campaign speech. He is not a world leader, yet he is being followed around as such.