King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla are heading to Berlin for the first state visit of the new king. On their trip, Charles will be the first British monarch to address the German Bundestag.

Charles and Camilla begin visit to Berlin and Hamburg

In the first overseas visit since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will arrive in Berlin today for a three-day trip around Germany. The itinerary will begin with a ceremonial welcome and military honours at the Brandenburg Gate. 

Anyone who would like to shake a hand or get a distant glimpse of grey from afar while pretending they were just passing by should head down to the monument between 10.30am and 1.30pm and expect “intensive security”, according to police. The ceremony will begin at around 3pm.

Later on, Charles and Camilla are invited to schmooze with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at his Bellevue Palace residency, but not before Steinmeier is due to make a speech on some of Charles’ favourite topics - energy transition and sustainability.

On Thursday, the monarchs will continue their trip around Berlin, first with a lunchtime trip to the Reichstag, where Charles is set to make a speech to Bundestag members, which will no doubt be seasoned with a few phrases and words in German as a throwback to the royal family’s ancestry. The pair will then head out of Berlin to Brandenburg, where they will meet soldiers from the German-British Amphibious Engineer Battalion 130 and visit an eco-village in Brodowin.

On Friday it's off to Hamburg by train. In the city-state, Charles and Camilla will visit the Kindertransport Final Farewell memorial, lay a wreath at the St. Nikolai memorial, take a boat trip with Steinmeier and visit a Grundschule before heading to the British Embassy for their dinner.

What is the significance of the royal visit to Germany?

“There is an obvious rationale for the visit,” constitutional expert and historian Vernon Bogdanor told the BBC, “to improve relations after Brexit”.

And according to Professor Pauline Maclaran, Charles and Camilla's joint trip to France and Germany - which has now been curtailed due to mass strikes against Emmanuel Macron’s policy on retirement - was designed to show no favouritism to either European nation.

At home, Charles is known for lobbying the UK government on everything from the Iraq War and badger culling to herbal medicines and his exemption from property law. Nevertheless, in an international context, diplomat and ambassador Tom Fletcher sees the royal visit to Germany as “a central part of how the UK projects soft power”. 

Thumb image credit: ChrisGhinda / Shutterstock.com