On the third day of their visit to Germany, the British King Charles III. and his wife Camilla arrived in Hamburg. They arrived punctually at midday on Friday with a normal ICE train at Dammtor station. Hamburg’s Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) and his wife Eva-Maria welcomed the royal couple as well as Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender at Dammtor station.
A few hundred Royal fans and curious people stood in front of the station, including class 5g from the Bergedorf district school. They actually wanted to go to the playground at Park Planten und Blomen. Now they were happy to see the royal couple.
“I’m really excited. So far I’ve only seen the king on TV. Now it’s really cool to be able to see him for real,” said 11-year-old Nova. The royal couple also took the opportunity to shake hands with some, to cheers from the crowd.
At the south exit of the Dammtor train station, the royals visited the memorial “Kindertransport – the last goodbye”. There Queen Camilla, Eva-Maria Tschentscher and Elke Büdenbender laid down white roses after a brief explanation by the initiator Lisa Bechner.
The sculptural group depicts the moment when two children say goodbye to a track, while a young woman and four other children remain behind. The memorial commemorates a major rescue operation before the outbreak of World War II: from December 1938 to August 1939, more than ten thousand mostly Jewish children were brought to Great Britain by train and ship. In 2006, Charles unveiled a similar sculpture entitled Kindertransport – The Arrival at Liverpool Street Station in London, where the Jewish children arrived.
There are other Kindertransport memorials in Berlin, Rotterdam, Prague, Vienna, Frankfurt and Gdansk. The Kindertransport organization in Germany and the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain work closely together to keep the memory of this shared moment in history alive for future generations.
The British King Charles III. laid a wreath at the St. Nikolai memorial in Hamburg, together with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Mayor Peter Tschentscher. The former Hamburg main church was destroyed during British and American air raids in World War II.
The Hamburg bishop Kirsten Fehrs spoke the “Coventry Litany of Reconciliation” in the presence of Charles and his wife Camilla. The prayer of reconciliation originated in 1959 in the English city. Coventry was heavily bombed by German air raids in November 1940.
The British King Charles III. and his wife Camilla then signed the city’s golden book in the Hamburg City Hall. The king took his own fountain pen to sign. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Parliament President Carola Veit, Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (both SPD) and Deputy Mayor Katharina Fegebank (Greens) were also present.
To the delight of those waiting, Charles and Camilla had briefly appeared on the balcony of City Hall and waved to the crowd. After the entry in the Golden Book, the monarch wants to visit Dockland. In the afternoon, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the King will discuss green energy and port development in Hamburg with entrepreneurs during a boat trip in the port.