The British King Charles III. and his wife Camilla are starting the third and final day of their state visit to Germany this Friday. In the morning, the royal couple, together with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender, will take a regular ICE train from Berlin to Hamburg.
At the Dammtor train station they are greeted by Hamburg’s Mayor Peter Tschentscher and his wife Eva-Maria. First point of visit there: the memorial “Children’s transport – the last farewell”. The bronze sculpture commemorates the predominantly Jewish children who were sent to Great Britain during the Nazi era and mostly never saw their relatives who stayed behind again.
Commemoration at the St. Nikolai memorial
This is followed by a joint wreath-laying ceremony at the St. Nikolai memorial. The church was destroyed during British and American air raids on Hamburg in 1943. Hamburg’s Bishop Kirsten Fehr will also speak words of reconciliation here. The Hamburg Boys’ Choir will open the commemoration of the victims of Operation Gomorrah 80 years ago with music.
Around 1 p.m. there will be an opportunity for a meeting with citizens in front of Hamburg City Hall, where the royal couple will be signing the Golden Book. The royal couple may even wave from the balcony of the town hall. Climate activists from the Last Generation movement spray-painted City Hall orange on Thursday.
In the afternoon, the Federal President and the King exchange views on the topics of green energy and sustainable port development with entrepreneurs during a tour of the port. At the same time, Elke Büdenbender and Queen Camilla attend the Rudolf Roß Elementary School, which teaches bilingually in German and English.
Shanty choir and bagpipe band
The state visit ends with a reception at the British Embassy with around 1,000 invited guests in Shed 52 in the port. Everything here should revolve around British and German music. Among other things, a Hamburg shanty choir and a Hamburg bagpipe band will perform together with two British bands. Stefanie Hempel and her Beatles cover band The Silver Spoons present songs by the guys from Liverpool who became famous in Hamburg. A performance by the Hamburg band Lord of the Lost, who represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Liverpool, is also planned.
Charles and Camilla were greeted with military honors at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Wednesday. On Thursday, the monarch gave a speech in the Bundestag. In his speech, which was partly in German, Charles addressed the close ties between the two countries – from trade in the days of the Hanseatic League to cultural and other aspects. He mentioned, for example, the Beatles and the German band Kraftwerk, the comedians of Monty Python or England’s victory over Germany in the final of the 2022 European Women’s Football Championship.
It is Charles’ first trip abroad in his new role as king, which he assumed after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September. Politically, the visit is significant because three years after Britain’s exit from the EU, a new chapter in Britain’s relations with Europe and Germany is set to begin.
