Though the Obama campaign has kept the location of their candidate’s Berlin speech under wraps, I hear that it will no longer be at the Gendarmenmarkt. One German journalist tells me the Obama camp has narrowed it down to two or three spots: one is the square in front of the Reichstag, a stone’s throw from the Brandenburg Gate. Two is Tempelhof airport, certainly a large enough venue. (On the other hand, Berlin’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit, though an Obama fan, supported the eventual closing of this airport and would probably not want to revive interest in it by hosting the senator here. Incidentally, the last prominent Americans to walk through Tempelhof were an archaeologist and his father, both who boarded a large zeppelin while evading Nazis in a quest for the Holy Grail.)
Finally, the Rathaus Schöneberg, where John F. Kennedy once spoke, has still not been ruled out. Senator Obama could speak here with the mayor at his side and select Social Democratic supporters, along with Caroline Kennedy. He could joke about the jelly doughnut and proceed to wow hundreds of thousands of Germans as the cameras roll. And then perhaps he can be lifted above the crowds like Old Deuteronomy at the end of Cats.
