Obama at the Gate

Here I am at the Brandenburg Gate - May 2008


Obama at gate splits German pols

By NICHOLAS KULISH and JEFF ZELENY
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The New York Times

BERLIN — With its pillars looming in the background, the Brandenburg Gate may have seemed the perfect campaign stop on Sen. Barack Obama's highly anticipated European tour, an ideal spot to burnish his foreign-policy credentials.

Instead, the plan — dissected in the German news media but never confirmed by the Obama campaign — has exposed fissures in the German government, with the conservative chancellor, Angela Merkel, strongly criticizing the proposal and the Social-Democratic vice chancellor and foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, favoring it.

The uproar has underscored the hazards Obama faces by taking his campaign overseas.

Merkel disapproves of having this symbol of German division and reunification pulled into the U.S. election fight.

"To use the Brandenburg Gate in some ways as a campaign backdrop, she has a limited sympathy for this and expresses her skepticism over pursuing such plans," spokesman Thomas Steg said Wednesday. "No German candidate for high office would think to use the National Mall or Red Square in Moscow for a rally, because it would be seen as inappropriate."

But then the normally staid government news conference turned into a German political faceoff.

Steinmeier's spokesman, Jens Ploetner, disagreed, saying the foreign minister would welcome Obama or his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, to speak at the gate, calling it "an expression of the vital German-American friendship."

The gate stood behind the Berlin Wall for nearly three decades, becoming a symbol of Europe's division during the Cold War.

Berlin was a regular stop for U.S. presidents, most famously PresidKennedy, who won the hearts of locals by declaring, "Ich bin ein Berliner," though not at the gate itself. But it was here that President Reagan gave a famous speech June 12, 1987, ordering, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

"The Brandenburg Gate was often a forum; why shouldn't it be for Obama?" said Johannes Mueller, 72, of Berlin, out for a bike ride Wednesday evening. "I also listened to John F. Kennedy at the Schoeneberg town hall in the '60s, and if I will be around, I'm sure I will stop and listen to Obama."

Obama is unusually popular in Germany. In some ways, he's a victim of his own popularity.

Political circles have been buzzing about the expected visit for a week, and the prospect that he could draw an enormous crowd, from neighboring countries as well. But because Obama is not the president — only a candidate for president — he runs the risk of appearing presumptuous rather than presidential.

While Obama spent his Fourth of July holiday in Montana, a member of his advance team was in Berlin to meet with politicians, including the mayor, Klaus Wowereit, who Tuesday expressed support for Obama's speaking at the gate, if he chose to do so. The city government has the final say.

No plans have been finalized for Obama to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, according to campaign aides. The site is one of several possible locations, aides said, and the decision would not be influenced by the comments of Merkel.

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