What to expect from King Charles's first state visit when monarch touches down in Germany
Such trips are made on the advice of the government and all the background briefings have been that this will be an important statement about rebuilding relationships with European neighbours.
Author and historian Sir Anthony Seldon said it was a message to Germany that "Britain might have left the European Union, it is not leaving the most powerful country in Europe". But this is about realpolitik as well as rapprochement and King Charles will become the first British monarch to give an address to Germany's parliament, the Bundestag.The royal couple will lay wreaths at St Nikolai in Hamburg, damaged by wartime Allied bombingThere will be a ceremonial welcome with military honours at the Brandenburg Gate, claimed as the first such greeting for a head of state visiting Germany. A state banquet will be held at the German president's Bellevue Palace.
"It's a really big deal," and will make a much bigger impression than a PM's visit, says Sir Anthony Seldon, who argues "we consistently underestimate the significance". Mr Fletcher, now principal of Hertford College Oxford, says for such trips "the theatre matters as much as the substance".
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