Address of the British King Charles III to the German Parliament
King Charles is in Germany on his first overseas visit since becoming King of Great Britain. On Thursday, he addressed the German federal parliament and praised Germany’s assistance to Ukraine and paid tribute to Anglo-German cultural ties.
Britain’s King Charles III met with German Chancellor Olaf Schulz before his address to the lower house of the German Federal Parliament on Thursday. Charles III is currently in Berlin on a three-day official visit to Germany. This is the first foreign visit of Charles, who became the king of Great Britain after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September last year.
Address to the German Parliament
In the Bundestag, the lower house of the federal German parliament, British King Charles began his speech in German and throughout his speech he spoke several times in English as well as in German. “My wife and I are very happy that as monarch we have come to Germany on our first foreign visit at the invitation of Germany,” he said, adding, “I am especially happy.” That I am able to speak here today to reaffirm the friendship between the two countries.”
The British monarch praised Germany’s extensive support for Ukraine against Russia, saying, “Germany’s decision to provide such large-scale military support to Ukraine was a very bold, important and welcome decision,” King Charles added. “As the biggest donors in Europe, Britain and Germany took decisions in response to the war in Ukraine that might have been previously unimaginable.
Welcome by the Speaker of Parliament
Before the speech of the British King Charles from the lower house of the Federal German Parliament, the President of the German Parliament, Bierbel Bass, welcomed him and called the arrival of the British royal couple in Germany a ‘great honor’.
Further engagements of King Charles in Germany
The address to the lower house of the Federal Parliament in Berlin was actually on King Charles’ very busy agenda in Germany. Before arriving at Parliament, King Charles signed the Golden Book of Berlin, which is signed by every official visitor to Berlin and keeps a record of each high-profile visitor’s visit. Engagements for King Charles and his wife Kay included a visit to a weekly market in the German capital.
Visit to historical places
In the afternoon, accompanied by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the British King also visited a center for Ukrainian refugees at a former Berlin airport, Tegel.
Charles was also given a tour of an eco-village in the Feinfurt area, north-east of Berlin, to meet soldiers from a German-British engineer battalion and talk about cheese-making and organic farming.
King Charles and his wife Camilla were formally welcomed with military honors by President Steinmeier and his wife Elke Bodenbender at the famous and historic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. After that, an official dinner has been arranged for the German head of state at Bellevue Palace, the presidential residence of the German head of state.
The German president thanked Charles for choosing Germany as his first foreign visit since becoming the new British monarch, saying it was “an important signal for German-British relations.”
The British monarch was originally scheduled to visit France, but that leg of her trip was canceled due to widespread protests in France against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms.