As Obama prepares to give his much-anticipated speech in Germany tomorrow, we asked Berlin-based
journalist Cameron Abadi, who writes regularly for Die Zeit and
the Financial Times Magazine, to give us some perspective from the
ground:
There was a time when
to be mayor of Berlin meant to have gained entry to the grand stage of world
politics: When John F. Kennedy rode through the streets of Berlin waving at
crowds from the back of an open-topped car, Mayor Willy Brandt was
riding shotgun; likewise, when Ronald Reagan passed through town the first
time, his tour guide would be then-mayor Richard von Weizsaecker. Alas, times
have changed: Current mayor Klaus Wowereit hasn't even been guaranteed a
meeting with Barack Obama.
The snub is an apt
illustration of the fact that the city itself has lost most of its former
political luster. As a local newspaper remarked yesterday, Berlin is in some ways
an unlikely site for a major transatlantic speech. It is no longer a divided
city, the frontline of the Cold War; it is a peaceful, but poor town, the
capital of a united and prosperous country. It is a place with many problems--high
unemployment, a ballooning budget deficit, a population of third-generation
immigrants that has not yet been integrated--for which it doesn't seem in a
particular hurry to find answers. People from around the world have long sought
an escape in Berlin,
but the place has been freed of the existential angst of the Cold War that
once granted that gesture poignancy.
Many critics have
questioned Obama's choice of the "Victory Column" for the site of his speech,
as it was originally built to commemorate German military aggression. But today's
Berliners actually associate the column with its post-Wall significance: the
gathering point of the "Love Parade," an international techno music
extravaganza (see above). The students, artists, freelancers, and expats who will flocking
to Obama's speech are the same ones who were attracted to Berlin's cheap rents,
thriving art scene, and mid-town water front that has been transformed into hopping
beach space. Thus, Berlin
is actually quite an appropriate setting for Obama's speech--a town drained of
its political drama, in front on a monument largely cleansed of its historical
associations. Obama's candidacy aims to inspire a new generation, not dwell on
the wounds of the past.
Obama's stop in Berlin will be the
perfect high point
for his rockstar world tour, which is more about gravitas than political
substance. Berliners aren't looking for a sober
event, in either sense of the word; they'll come for Obama, but they'll stay
for the beer.
--Cameron Abadi