King Felipe VI, on a state visit to Germany together with Queen Letizia, celebrated this "year of meetings" between the two countries this Monday in Berlin before the President of the Republic, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “There is a lot that we share; we are two great sovereign nations united by the principles of freedom, democracy and the rule of law”, said the King at Bellevue Palace, the main seat of the German federal presidency.
"In addition, as members of the EU, the Atlantic Alliance and the UN, among others, we are fully committed to respecting International Law and its observance and compliance, especially in this crisis that we are experiencing with the war in Ukraine," he said. the King in his institutional statement.
President Steinmeier said that “Spain is a particularly close partner for Germany”, since “we share the same values and together we advocate a strong and united Europe”. The German head of state, who recalled his visit to Spain in October 2018, stated that "together in Europe we face enormous challenges", such as "the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and climate change". Steinmeier argued that “Putin's war against Ukraine is also a war against the unity of Europe. We must not allow it to divide us."
In his speech, Felipe also stressed that "Spain and Germany are increasingly connected through a shared ecosystem of scientists and researchers who are already addressing the challenges of the future." Precisely this afternoon, the King will visit the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, a physical and chemical research institute in which Spanish researchers work. A fundamental part of this trip is the inauguration tomorrow, Tuesday, presided over by the Monarchs and Steinmeier, of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest in the publishing world, in which Spain is this year's guest country.
The King and Queen arrived at 10:30 in the morning at Bellevue, where they were received with military honors and where the Spanish flag was raised. Before the meeting, the King and Queen, President Steinmeier and his wife, Elke Büdenbender, signed little flags in the courtyard for students from the bilingual Spanish-German public school Joan Miró in Berlin, who had come to greet them. While the King held a meeting with President Steinmeier, the Queen met with the wife of the Head of State.
As a gift, the King and Queen gave the President of the Republic: a Book of Hours of Charles V, which was written expressly for his trip from Spain to Germany to be crowned Emperor; and a book and coins commemorating the 500th anniversary of Magellan-Elcano's circumnavigation of the world, considered the starting point of the first globalization. The German hosts gave the King and Queen a model of the Gorch Fock, training ship of the German Navy, and the Book-Book painting
This is the first state visit of Spanish monarchs to Germany since 1986, when King Juan Carlos I and Sofía attended. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were already on an official trip to Germany in December 2014 and met with high-ranking German authorities, but it was not a state visit, which has special characteristics. Felipe VI returned to Berlin a year later, by himself, in November 2015.
After visiting the Bellevue Palace on Monday, Felipe VI and Letizia went to the Neue Wache (New Guard), a neoclassical building on Unter den Linden avenue, where the Monument to the Victims of War and the Tyranny, before whom they laid flowers. It contains a large replica of the moving sculpture Mother with Dead Child by the artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), a sculpture also known as the Kollwitz Pietà, as the sorrowful mother embraces the lifeless soldier.
In Berlin on Tuesday, Felipe VI will participate with Spanish and German businessmen in the Spanish-German Forum at the Berlin headquarters of the Bertelsmann Foundation, after which he will meet with the President of Parliament, Bärbel Bas. Meanwhile, Doña Letizia will visit, accompanied by 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.
And after going to the Rotes Rathaus, City Hall of the city-state of Berlin, and to the Brandenburg Gate, the King and Queen will embark on 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.
