Herr Bundespräsident, Frau Büdenbender, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Meine Frau und ich freuen uns, Sie zu diesem Staatsbesuch auf Schloss Windsor begrüßen zu dürfen.
[It is with very great pleasure that my wife and I welcome you to Windsor Castle on the occasion of this State Visit.]
Es kommt mir vor, als wäre unser Staatsbesuch in Deutschland zwei tausend drei und zwanzig – der erste nach meiner Thronbesteigung – erst gestern gewesen. Bei diesem Besuch und bei früheren Besuchen haben Sie und Ihre verehrte Frau meiner Frau und mir viel Herzlichkeit gezeigt. Umso mehr freuen wir uns, dass wir Sie hier in Windsor als unsere Gäste begrüßen können. Dies zeigt die besondere Freundschaft, die unsere Länder verbindet.
[It seems only yesterday that we paid our State Visit to Germany in 2023, the first one since my Accession. On this and on our previous visits, you and your dear wife showed both my wife and myself much kindness. That makes the pleasure all the greater that we can welcome you here at Windsor as our guests, a mark of a very special friendship that binds our two nations.]
During our Visit you kindly invited me to address the Bundestag in a deeply appreciated gesture of remarkable friendship, as well as visit your world-famous markets, celebrate the spirit of reconciliation under the ‘Cross of Nails’ at St. Nikolai Memorial Church, and be shown how you are using green energy in your ports and transport infrastructure. I am so pleased, therefore, that your visit in the days ahead to London and to Coventry will carry many of the same themes, recognizing the deeply historic and richly innovative relationship our two nations hold.
And of course, this has always been the way. From the year 695 when the Patron Saint of Germany, Saint Boniface, crossed the Channel from Anglo-Saxon England to preach the Gospel to the Germanic tribes across the Rhine – seen as barbarians by the Popes, but to Boniface his kinsmen to Eadgyth, the sister of Æthelstan, the first King of a united England, who in 959 married the Saxon Emperor, Otto the Great, later crowned by the Pope in Rome, and described as fearless, charismatic, and intimidatingly hairy…
…and to Martin Luther who contributed to the intellectual foundations of the English Church some five hundred years later.
The bedrock of our relationship has not only been in ideas, but also in trade: merchants and craftsmen from Dortmund and Cologne who, in 1380, operated the Guildhall of The Germans in London which then dominated trade between our nations, and indeed across Europe, for over two hundred years!
Ahead of tomorrow night, and the dinner you will attend at the City of London’s own Guildhall, it is wonderful to be joined this evening by business leaders and investors, scientists and creators, representatives of some of the 2,500 German businesses which have made the United Kingdom their home and who personify the modern equivalent of those merchants who came before them. Germany is known the world over for invention and innovation: Siemens’ industrial plant in Newcastle is one of many global examples, as is BMW’s Mini Cooper plant in Oxford. But even the distinguished representatives of the German automotive industry here this evening, with their cars containing all the latest technology, highest safety, greatest luxury, and new green technologies, would perhaps have looked in awe at you, Herr Bundespräsident, as you travelled this afternoon in the most comfortable and lowest emissions vehicle in the world: the horse-drawn Royal Carriage! It might only be six horsepower, but sometimes a simpler vehicle is all one needs….
Football of course is another shared endeavour, and I am delighted to see so many of the footballing fraternity around the table with us here this evening. Of course, I use the word “shared” in the broadest meaning of the word: there was, one has to admit, some element of truth in the famous description of football as a game where eleven people play eleven people, and then, in the end, the Germans win!
And with our German friends, as with all of the closest relationships, we celebrate not only our shared characteristics, but also our differences. It can have escaped no one’s attention that Germans are considered by many in my country to have a somewhat different sense of humour. But let me assure you, Herr Bundespräsident, British humour is no laughing matter.
Like our languages, English and German, which share such deep common roots, but now do sound a little different. It is undoubtedly true, that your language contains a very large number of very long words. As someone who has spent some time trying to learn a little Welsh, I have some sympathy for the proposition that needless gaps between words are a dreadfully inefficient use of paper…
Um ernst zu bleiben, Herr Bundespräsident, ich freue mich sehr, dass Sie uns in einem Jahr besuchen, in dem unsere Regierungen den Kensington-Vertrag über Freundschaft und bilaterale Zusammenarbeit unterzeichnet haben. Der Vertrag ist so benannt, weil die Unterzeichnung im Victoria und Albert Museum im Londoner Bezirk Kensington stattgefunden hat. Morgen werden Sie natürlich das Museum V&A East besuchen. Wenn es eine Beziehung gibt, welche die tiefe Empathie zwischen unseren Völkern symbolisieren kann, ist es die zwischen Königin Victoria und Prinz Albert. Mein Ur-Ur-Urgroßvater hat diesem Land so viel gegeben: als Pädagoge und Sozialreformer, und als treibende Kraft hinter der Londoner Weltausstellung von achtzehnhundert ein und fünfzig.
[More seriously, Herr Bundespräsident, I am delighted that you visit in the year in which our governments signed the Kensington Treaty on Friendship and Bilateral Cooperation. The Treaty is so named because it was signed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the London Borough of Kensington, and of course tomorrow you will visit the V&A East. And if any relationship can symbolize the deep empathy between the peoples of Germany and the United Kingdom, it is surely that between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. My great, great, great, grandfather brought so much to this country: as an educationalist and social reformer, not least as the moving force behind the 1851 Great Exhibition.]
We have, of course, experienced the darkest times, and the most terrible consequences of conflict. But perhaps now, so many decades later, the acknowledgment of past suffering has become the basis for an honest friendship, renewed and redoubled.
So looking ahead, Herr Bundespräsident, we have a responsibility to our citizens, and to our European neighbours as well as the wider world, to speak about the shared values of the United Kingdom and Germany, and our shared vision for the future of our modern world, as encapsulated in the Kensington Treaty. As two of the world’s great economies and great powers, and with such intimate understanding of one another, I am confident we will face these challenges together. Our partnership continues to adapt to new times. We now find ourselves at the forefront of a global transformation - the search for a way of living that is at once prosperous, humane and sustainable. Here, as elsewhere, Britain and Germany stand shoulder to shoulder – guided not only by technology and science, but by conscience.
We are working together to secure the transition to a world powered by clean energy, the very basis of a liveable planet for future generations. And from protection of the world’s rainforests through to the development of renewable energy in the North Sea, to the restoration of our peatlands, to the promise of nuclear fusion, and the transformative impact of quantum technologies and space research, our two countries are partners not just in policy, but in practice. We are animated by the same belief: that progress is only meaningful when it genuinely serves humanity.
And with regard to shared defence, our German-British Bridging Battalion at Minden – which I visited during our State Visit two years ago – is literally building bridges, a unique partnership at the heart of N.A.T.O.. And more broadly, of course, the United Kingdom and Germany together stand with Ukraine and bolster Europe against the threat of further Russian aggression.
Like you, I place trust in the ambition and imagination of our young people – in their “mut zu hoffen”, in your memorable phrase, Herr Bundespräsident. “Courage to hope”. It is young people’s ideas and their passion that will shape the future we share. Whether through academic exchange, youth-led innovation or the friendships forged in classrooms and on playing fields, partnerships between our young people will be the foundation for understanding between our nations, now and in the years to come.
Wahrlich, Herr Bundespräsident, haben Sie sich lebenslang für die Stärkung der Demokratie und der Verständigung engagiert – in einem Zeitalter, in dem beide gefordert sind. Es sind sechsunddreißig Jahre seit dem Fall der Berliner Mauer vergangen, einem entscheidenden Moment in der Geschichte der Menschheit. Die turbulenten Zeiten des politischen, sozialen und technologischen Wandels, die danach gekommen sind, haben unsere Werte auf den Prüfstand gestellt. Viele haben dies als beunruhigend, sogar beängstigend empfunden. Die Angst kann zu Wut und Verbitterung führen. Aber das Vereinigte Königreich und Deutschland sind im festen Glauben an die Demokratie, den Frieden und den Rechtsstaat vereint. Sie selber haben uns auch daran erinnert, dass Fortschritt nicht laut sein muss, um dauerhaft zu sein, und dass der Anstand – liese ausgeübt – eine mächtige Kraft im öffentlichen Leben sein kann. Dafür gebührt Ihnen unser Dank.
[Verily, Herr Bundespräsident, you have devoted your life to strengthening democracy and understanding in an age that tests both. It is thirty-six years since the fall of the Berlin Wall – a momentous event in human history. The tumultuous period of political, social and technological change that happened after that has tested our values. Many have found that unsettling and even frightening. Fear can lead to anger and resentment. But the United Kingdom and Germany are united in a continued belief in democracy, freedom and the Rule of Law. You yourself have also reminded us that progress need not be loud to be lasting, and that decency — quietly practised — can be one of the most powerful forces in public life. For that, we applaud you.]
In that conviction, let us tonight renew our shared determination to face the future together – with honesty, and in deep friendship. Therefore, as we celebrate that deep friendship, allow me to propose a toast: a toast to you, Herr Bundespräsident and to you, Frau Büdenbender, and to the people of the Federal Republic of Germany.
