June 5, 9:15 PM. There he is again! Back to Germany for the second time! Oh no, this is not Berlin, it is Dresden. Obama is not heading for Berlin in this visit. In fact he is not really into meeting anyone from Berlin. His concern is completely different.
And so "the mountains go to Hussein." Berliners go to Dresden to be with him, to be seen with him, to be in a picture with him. Angela Merkel knows about the link between great pictures on red carpets and political success makes good use of this opportunity. For the American President is definitely a red-carpet-guy. For instance, when her Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier requested for a meeting with President Obama, Merkel let him know he may join in for the group picture that would be taken there after her meeting him. So Steinmeier withdrew and preferred to stay in Berlin.
One might be reminded however, that back about a year ago, when erstwhile presidential-candidate Obama first visited Germany, Angela Merkel was not that accommodating. She declined to grant Obama's request to speak in front of the Berlin Brandenburger Tor. Merkel made it a point back then that she did not approve of an American election campaign in that hallowed place. Now, however, Germany is holding an upcoming elections and Angela Merkel knows about the hype, about the extent of Obamania even in Germany and among German voters, so she is aware of the importance of being photographed with Obama.
Yet even in that situation her sentiments remained. Like during his election campaign, Obama was again not truly visiting Germany, in fact he invited himself over. He was going to Germany to address the "Two-Nation-Issue" in the near East. He was talking to Israel and Palestine. Germans were again not really his intent.
Knowing all the brown stains on our German slate, we Germans will never dare do anything but obey to Obama's using us for this purpose, and it is right he is sending those messages to the world. Yet it also hurts the German soul. We are reminded about what it is the world knows about Germany; and here comes the new, young, and dynamic American President and puts his fingers exactly into that wound again.
How do we take his proclamations of pursuing a turning point in foreign politics? He says he is standing for more understanding among nations, for more and peaceful negotiations, and for breaking open the hardened fronts. Yes, he is sending that message to the world.
And yet, after his visit to the concentration camp Buchenwald, he moves on to celebrate D-Day in the Normandy with the allied forces; a celebration that also dates back 60 years, and where Great Britain, France, and America celebrate their victory over Germany. However, if indeed the celebration must be seen as if they were celebrating the liberation of Germany, then the Germans would be invited also; but for the last 60 years they never were.
Pictures have power, they make the mighty and at times they even turn the mighty into puppets on strings. Everything that happens in public is meticulously scrutinized for its symbolic power. Nothing is left to chance. No place, no spoken word, no company. All is perfectly arranged to send the perfect message via the selected international media.
And then there is Angela Merkel, who dares not to undermine Obama's-and the world's-valuable and important issue, but goes to redeem the wounded German soul. She makes it a point that Obama visits not only the Buchenwald concentration camp, but also takes at least one hour of his time to visit the Marienkirche in Dresden, a church completely destroyed (as was the entire town of Dresden) by American bombers when the Allied Forces went to bomb the civilian German population in the late years of World War II. And while Dresden was rebuilt, the Marienkirche remained a ruin until the wall fell, and it was only then, that the Marienkirche was rebuilt, restored rather, following sketches of the original setup. It was thus that the Marienkirche became a very German symbol for survival, recovery and reunion after the war. In his visit last week Obama visited Dresden's Marienkirche with Angela Merkel.
Maybe, Mr. President, you will make it to visit Germany a third time, and maybe then you may-without being told-visit and thus value Germany and the Germans for who they are today instead of promoting the German stigma, which was over even before you were born.