I feel strangely proud of this fact, as if I'd somehow had a hand in Berlin's very un-Berlin-like weather accomplishment.
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Oh, yes, and Obama spoke.
I find it hard to believe he's going to be able to make good on very many of the nice sentiments he expressed, but I admit, that man knows how to give a good speech.
Here are some of the thoughts I scribbled down, while simultaneously listening to the speech/working on a translation/fielding calls from an editor about another translation. (Yikes! Turns out I'm still good at multitasking.)
(Also, I don't exactly expect anyone to read all of this, but I have all of these notes here already, so...)
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Notes scribbled while watching:
Is that bulletproof glass between the podium and the crowd? Sheesh.
Ah, okay, it's not that it's completely limited to politicians, just that it's invitation only. Kind of cute (but not surprising) that the "invitation only" includes kids from the JFK School. (Not surprising because Germany loves JFK and loves Obama and loves comparing Obama to JFK. Given that Obama later mentioned how soon after his Berlin speech Kennedy was assassinated, let's hope not!)
As they walked in, my first thought was, Angela Merkel totally knows she's walking next to a rock star. Obama looked happy to be there too.
I was actually surprised Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit didn't look particularly moved, because as far as I can tell this – Germany's favorite rock star American president speaking in front of his city's major landmark – has been Wowereit's dream for years. (Ever since Obama spoke here during his election campaign five years ago, when there was some wrangling over where he would speak – if I remember right, Wowereit was pushing to have Obama at the historic and emotionally resonant Brandenburg Gate, but Merkel said no, because he was a candidate, not a president. And because Merkel had always been buddy-buddy with Bush, making Obama sort of her opposition.)
I was listening to an English version of the livestream, so I heard Wowereit's and Merkel's speeches in English simultaneous translation, and as usual I enjoyed catching the little quirks and glitches, like the interpreter's slight stumble before saying "bomber pilot" (I assume because the German term was "Rosinenbomber" and the interpreter wasn't aware of the English equivalent "candy bomber" – I mean, really, who would be? – and had to scramble for something else) or saying slight German-isms like "until today" (instead of "to this day") or "the United States of America are" (instead of "is").
Still, can I just say that simultaneous interpreters are awesome? I sure couldn't do what they do.
Liked watching the JFK School kiddies cheer for Obama.
Wowereit went all-out with the JFK/Obama comparisons, talking about how both of their previous speeches were inspiring, and also inadvertently highlighted just how insane the security is this time in comparison to last time, when he said about Obama's 2008 Berlin speech, "When you addressed an enthusiastic crowd of 200,000 people."
Here's that speech, a massive, jubilant public event that more closely resembled a rock concert or a World Cup outdoor viewing party:
Here's today, completely walled off to the public:
Found it both endearing and strange that Merkel addressed Obama as both "Dear Mr. President" "Dear Barack Obama" (and later even just "Dear Barack").
Name-checking of the usual things, like the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift.
I realized during this just how much the American perspective of Germany and Berlin is still 100% seen through the eyes of West Germany. I mean, it makes sense, because that's the only Germany that the US had relations with in those days. But it's sort interesting/odd that even so many years later, when American politicians talk about Berlin's past, it's always from the perspective of West Berlin, the embattled island. East Berlin is still the other, the strange world on the other side of the wall – the story is never from the East's perspective, even though that's just as valid a half of the city and its history.
Heh. Merkel's comment that "There can be no better partners for each other than America and Europe." Obama's great interest Asia has Europe nervous!
Yes, I loved Obama's line, "Angela and I don't exactly look like previous German and American leaders." True, that. And awesome.
And Merkel was smiling! Really smiling!
Yes, I caught that right: In attendance was not just a candy bomber, but the original candy bomber: Colonel Gail Halvorsen, 92, the first American pilot to have the idea of dropping down sweets for the kids on the ground during the Berlin Airlift.
Reference to Pariser Platz – where Obama spoke, the square in front of the Brandenburg Gate – as once having been a "no man's land" within the Berlin Wall. True, and easy to forget these days. Obama's other comment about the Brandenburg Gate – "I am proud to stand on its Eastern side" – was nice too.
Appreciated Obama's citation of "all men are created equal" (American Declaration of Independence) and "the dignity of man is inviolable" (German constitution) and his other comments about equality and dignity for all, though it also seems hypocritical when you think about how the US tends to treat non-American people. But I'll try not to delve too far into such subjects here...
"Freedom won here in Berlin" is a nice line. More interesting were his comments about complacency and that "people often come together in places like this to remember history – not to make it."
An aside, sorry, but Obama's pronunciation of German is awful. Five years he's been working with Merkel, and he still has no idea how to say her last name?
Unsurprisingly (since this was the chatter beforehand) he then turned to the topic of nuclear disarmament. His goal of reducing nuclear weapons is nice, but seems kind of like a drop in the bucket, doesn't it? With so many more out there?
More interesting to me was his acknowledgement that you can fight terrorism and all, but you're not changing anything if you "ignore the instability and intolerance that fuels extremism." Also, the interesting statement that, "Threats to freedom don't merely come from the outside. They can emerge from within – from our own fears."
After some blather along the lines of "The Afghan war is coming to an end" (is it?) and "Our efforts against al Qaeda are evolving" (what does that even mean?) Obama said perhaps his most important statement of all: "We must move beyond a mindset of perpetual war."
I hope he means it.
Another nice line: "Our values call upon us to care about the lives of people we will never meet."
And: "Peace with justice begins with the example we set here at home." After Obama's initial hesitance to really come out in support of gay rights/equality, it was good to hear him listing "sexual orientation" right alongside race, religion and gender as things that should not be reasons for inequality.
That's another key line, actually: "We are stronger when all our people – no matter who they are or what they look like – are granted opportunity."
And: "When we welcome the immigrant with his talents or her dreams, we are renewed." Good for you, Obama! Germany needed to hear that one... (America too.)
Unsurprisingly, references to jobs, then to climate change, other current political issues around the world; a suggestion that he'll at least try to close the Guantanamo prison and to "control use" of drones; then the barest of nods to the PRISM blow-up in the half-sentence "balancing the pursuit of security with the protection of privacy" – whatever that actually means in practice.
And of course he ended with a completely inappropriate "God bless you," because that's what you have to do as a political figure in the US, even though the country supposedly has separation of church and state. Sorry, I'll restrain myself...
Then Merkel and Obama walked off together practically arm in arm, looking truly happy to be friends despite their perhaps rocky start. Wave, wave. Chat, chat with Merkel, both of them smiling. Wowereit tagging along.
Not bad, all together.
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And then I went back to translating until 10 pm.
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