Party atmosphere as Obama delivers keynote speech in Berlin

By Jean-Baptiste Piggin and Mike Swanson Jul 24, 2008, 18:36 GMT

US Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama speaks to the audience in Berlin, Germany, 24 July 2008. About 100,000 people came to listen to Obama delivering his keynote speech on transatlantic relations. EPA/GERO BRELOER

Berlin - Germans turned out in their tens of thousands to hear Barack Obama speak in Berlin on Thursday as the Democratic Party hopeful took the US presidential election campaign to Europe.

A party atmosphere gripped the Victory Column monument near the city centre as people listened to the man many hoped would replace George W Bush as leader of the world's most powerful nation.

A roar went up from the multi-ethnic crowd when Obama strolled confidently onto the stage to talk of the US-German partnership and the need to strengthen transatlantic relations to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Around 100,000 lined the boulevard linking the Victory Column to the Brandenburg Gate, where Obama had originally intended to speak but later dropped the plan after Merkel signalled her disapproval at the site being used for foreign election campaign speeches.

Many of those present queued patiently for over an hour outside 20 airport-style security gates where they were required to empty their pockets and dispense with drinks containers.

Once inside they were able to refresh themselves with plastic mugs of German beer and snacks as a pop band livened up the audience on a warm mid-summer evening.

No banners or placards were allowed on the strip guarded by around 1,000 police and other security officers as the Obama team sought to ensure that no unwelcome slogans were aired on US television.

But Democrats inside distributed US flags to their supporters and a green poster was held aloft by an Obama fan with the words 'I Love Barack 'n' Roll.'

Outside the entrance gates to the security zone, US Democrats wearing Obama '08 buttons launched a recruitment drive, yelling out 'US citizens register to vote.'

Jose, 33, a Spanish biologist working on a research project in Berlin, said of Obama's address: 'It might make history and I would be sorry afterwards if I missed it.'

'I'm going to give this speech to my class of 17-year-olds to study, 'said Maike, a 33-year-old German who teaches English at a high school in the western German city of Dortmund.

Nigerian Ubong Simon 32, said: 'I don't care if he's a black man or a white man, but he's giving the world the right signals, at least for now.'

But one middle-aged German man said, 'I don't really know what he's saying. I only came here because he's famous.'

The foreign policy address was the highlight of day-long visit that included talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The motorcade that carried Obama on his Berlin rounds was bigger than that used by many heads of government, with several black Mercedes-Benz cars and white US vans carrying guards and aides accompanied by Berlin police out-riders and a helicopter overhead.

Obama, 46, enjoyed the attention, waving with a smile to supporters waiting in the summer heat on the street as he emerged onto the balcony of Merkel's office building.

Berlin's year-round throngs of tourists and visiting school classes were also engulfed by the fever of the city's 'Obama Day.'

A group of Bavarian teenagers visiting Merkel's chancellery found themselves caught inside by the high security and suddenly up close to the Illinois senator.

Breathless girls aged 17 and 18 began to utter shrieks of excitement when he approached them.

'He's like a pop star,' enthused Andre Meyer, 18, who had undertaken a three-hour drive with his father from near Hamburg so that the two Meyers could see Obama live.

'If he carries out even half of what he promises, the world will be a better place,' said the father, Frank Meyer, 43.

Lisa Werner, 16, from a small town west of Frankfurt, was sure, 'he'll be the next president.'

During Obama's speech, the television cameras took over-the- shoulder shots showing a jubilant throng in front of him stretching as far as the eye can see to the Brandenburg Gate in the distance.

For many in the United States, the gate was a symbol of the division of Europe during the Cold War, standing just inside communist East Berlin with the Berlin Wall running in front of it.

The audience interrupted the speech with polite applause, especially when he referred to the wall and President Ronald Reagan's 1987 speech there, urging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear in down. It did come down two years later.

John F Kennedy, the US president Obama most likes to be compared with, also visited the site in 1963, although his famous 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech was made some distance away.