The Queen in Berlin
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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip welcomed in divided but cheering Berlin on the occasion of the First British State Visit in the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1965.
Almost a million people cheered the Queen and Prince Philip on their drive through the thronging streets of a divided Berlin on 27 May 1965 at the end of a triumphal 11-days State Visit, and before departing from Hamburg in the royal yacht "Britannia". In front of the Schöneberg City Hall, the Kennedy Platz, some hundredthousand Berliners, mainly young people had gathered for addresses by the Queen, the governing Mayor Willy Brandt and Chancellor Erhard.
Greeted and interrupted by the enthusiastic crowd again and again shouting "Elisabet", the Queen said: "There is so much here of a very personal interest to me; reminders of earlier generations of my own family. In Charlottenburg Palace I have seen the portrait of Princess Sophie Charlotte, for whom the palace was built, whose brother was King George I of England. In more recent times, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, later the Empress Frederick, made her home here. In fact, some 14 daughters of British sovereigns through the ages married German princes.
It is in their memory and in memory of our visit that I planted a tree from England in the English Garden. It joins other trees from Windsor Forest already growing there, but I hope this one will be symbolic of a new chapter of understanding and co-operation between our two countries within the wider association of the free and equal nations of Europe."
