Queen Elizabeth II begins visit in Germany
June 23, 2015
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were received with military honors in Berlin on Tuesday. The royal couple's agenda will include a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at her offices on Wednesday, after a boat trip along the Spree River.
The three-day state visit comes at a time when Great Britain is seeking German support for its EU reform wish list. British Prime Minister David Cameron is also due to meet Merkel on Wednesday ahead of an EU summit later in the week.
On Thursday, the 89-year-old queen and her husband will visit the former Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, liberated by British troops in April 1945, where the young Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot died. The queen will meet survivors of the Holocaust and former troops who liberated the notorious camp.
"It is fitting the queen should go," said 89-year-old Bernard Levy, who helped liberate the camp as a young soldier. He was asked by Queen Elizabeth to attend the wreath-laying ceremony.
"Holocaust education is so paramount, and many kids of today don't really know about it. The queen going there lends credence."
The royal couple also made state visits to Germany in 1965, 1978, 1992 and 2004.
das/cmk (AP, AFP)