King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia undertook a trip to Germany yesterday afternoon for a state visit that will include the inauguration on Tuesday of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest in the publishing world, in which Spain is this year's guest country.
The institutional stage of the visit to the capital, Berlin, on Monday includes meetings between the King and the President of the Republic, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, at Bellevue Palace, the main seat of the Head of State; and with the Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, at the Federal Chancellery.
Last night, the King and Queen held a meeting at the embassy with a representation of the almost 200,000 Spaniards residing in Germany. "Some of you have been here for many years and you collaborated in a fundamental and exemplary way in the reconstruction of Germany," Felipe VI told those present. Others, and most of you, are a young population, with close ties to this land, such as having been born here or having formed a mixed Spanish-German family. Quite a few of you have recently arrived, motivated by various economic or professional circumstances”.
The King argued that this "experience of emigration" implies, on the one hand, "uncertainty, abnegation and distance" but also "overcoming, in many cases culminating in personal or professional success, courage, responsibility and representation". Don Felipe also highlighted "the intensity of the links and exchanges" that exist between Spain and Germany, as well as the "relevance of common interests, concerns and objectives" of the two countries.
Today in Berlin, after the visit to the Head of State, the King and Queen will lay flowers at the Monument to the Victims of War and Tyranny, which is located in the Neue Wache (New Guard), a neoclassical building on the famous avenue Unter den Linden. Also on the agenda is a visit by the King to the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, a physical and chemical research institute in which Spanish researchers work.
In Berlin on Tuesday, Felipe VI will have breakfast with Spanish and German businessmen, and will participate in the Spanish-German Forum at the Berlin headquarters of the Bertelsmann Foundation, after which he will meet with the president of the Bundestag (lower house of Parliament), Bärbel Bas . Meanwhile, Mrs. Letizia will visit with President Steinmeier's wife, Elke Büdenbender, the temporary exhibition Writing all their names from the collection of Helga de Alvear, which is located in the central Palais Populaire in Berlin.
After stops at the Rotes Rathaus, the City-State of Berlin City Hall, and the Brandenburg Gate, the King and Queen will undertake the same Tuesday trip to Frankfurt, where in the afternoon they will inaugurate the Book Fair together with Federal President Steinmeier and his wife. The four will then visit the Spanish pavilion, guest of honor at the Fair, and will participate in a night reception with a brief toast from the King.
Already on Wednesday 19, the last day of the trip, Felipe and Letizia will visit the Spanish exhibitors at the Book Fair, and at noon the King will visit the headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB), before returning to Madrid.
The King and Queen were already on an official trip to Germany in December 2014 and met with high German authorities, but it was not a state visit. The King returned to Berlin alone a year later, in November 2015.
Accompanying the King and Queen at one stage or another of the current State visit: the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares; the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, with the Secretary of State for Commerce, Xiana Margarida Méndez; the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta; and the Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño.
