Obama in Berlin: The German Press coverage

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Barack Obama was greeted by 200’000 Berliners with much enthusiasm. The German Press is, unsurprisingly, busily reporting and commenting it. I will give you some quotes in German, the translations will be mine, so if any misinterpretation should occur it will be my fault.

Der Spiegel makes it easy for me, the have an International page in English:

Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin’s Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious — he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world.

It was a ton to absorb — and what a stupendous ride through world history: the story of his own family, the Berlin Airlift, terrorists, poorly secured nuclear material, the polar caps, World War II, America’s errors, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, freedom. It’s amazing one could even pack such a potpourri of issues into sentences and then succeed in squeezing them all into the space of a speech that lasted less than 30 minutes. (read more)

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, states that one of the reasons Obama was so welcome in Berlin is the fact that he is not George W.Bush:

Diese Begeisterung wird auch nicht durch den ins Auge springenden Showcharakter seiner Auftritte gedämpft. Obamas Weltreise ist eine perfekt kalkulierte Inszenierung für den heimischen Wählermarkt, mit der eine seiner Schwächen – Mangel an internationaler Erfahrung – verdeckt werden soll. Selbst Obamas mehrfach geäußerte Aufforderung an die Europäer, sich im Kampf gegen den Terror, vor allem in Afghanistan, stärker zu engagieren, scheint dem deutschen Publikum bisher die Laune nicht zu verderben – so genau will man es vorerst, solange der mutmaßliche Kandidat noch nicht in der Kommandozentrale der Supermacht sitzt, gar nicht wissen.

Vielleicht gelingt es Obama tatsächlich nach dem Vorbild Clintons, Härte in der Sache mit versöhnlichen Worten und Gesten zu kaschieren. Bush jedenfalls hat nicht nur seine faktische Politik ins Popularitätstief gerissen; seine aggressive, zum intellektuell Groben und politisch Unhöflichen neigende Art, hat zu den Fehlern noch die negative Ausstrahlung hinzugefügt. (full story)

This enthusiasm is not mellowed by the obvious showmanship of his appearance. Obama’s world trip is a perfectly calculated orchestration for the electorate at home, to cover up for his weakness – lack in international experience. Even Obama’s repeatedly expressed request to the Europeans, to engage more in the war on terror mainly in Afghanistan couldn’t sour the mood of his audience – one prefers not to know as long as the candidate has not really reached the command center of the super power.

Maybe Obama will really succeed, after the manner of Clinton, to cover up tough decision with engaging gestures and conciliatory words. Bush, however, hasn’t been swept into his lows in popularity by the facts of his policies alone, his aggressive, intellectually blunt and politically rude manner, has added a negative perception to his mistakes.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung points out:

Obama, daran gibt es keinen Zweifel, wird den Europäern mehr abverlangen, um in Afghanistan und im Irak erfolgreich zu sein. Er sprach in Berlin von “geteilten Opfern”. Europa müsse “mehr, nicht weniger tun”. Und er verlangte explizit deutsche Soldaten für Afghanistan. Er sagte nicht “mehr Soldaten”, aber das war gemeint. Und auch das deutete Obama an: Er will als Präsident Unterstützung für die Abwicklung des Irak-Abenteuers. Obama wird teuer für Deutschland. (full story)

Obama will doubtless ask more from Europeans to be successful in Iraq and Afghanistan. He spoke about “shared sacrifices” in Berlin. Europe must “do more, not less”. And he asked for German soldiers in Afghanistan. He didn’t say more soldiers, but that’s what he meant. And Obama hinted at this, too: He wants support for the phaseout of the Iraq adventure. Obama is going to come at a high price for Germany.

Germany’s most important tabloid Bild, has it’s own team of i-reporters and 1414 were out to cover Obama’s speech. And Bild provides you with the pictures.

Die Welt is maintaining an English site, too, immensely helpful.

Barack Obama’s displayed all his charismatic colours before Berlin’s Victory Column to more than 200,000 cheering fans on Sunday. His rousing speech resonated well with Germans, with newspapers lauding the Democratic presidential hopeful’s appearance as a historic event. (full story)

There is lots of criticism, too. In many newspapers, Obama is accused of the usual failures, lack of substance mostly. But let me close with the assumption of Gabor Steingart in his “West Wing” column of Der Spiegel:

The 200,000 onlookers who thronged to listen to Obama’s speech should not deceive us. Listening is not the same as agreeing. Obama divides people, and not along traditional party lines.

It is, anyway, a great mistake to divide the voters in Western nations into left and right, aggressive and peace-loving, market orientated and critical of capitalism. In reality there are just two types of voters: the romantic democrats and the common-sense democrats.

I wish you all a good and healthy day. I have a friend, whose friend is undergoing a severy surgical procedure today. If you can, send some healing thoughts to all the people out there, who are suffering. Thank you.