Even after Barack Obama's change of venue for his speech in Berlin from Brandenburg Gate to the Victory Column, the controversy over his choice of location continues. German politicians from both the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) as well as from the opposition Free Democrats (FDP) critized the Obama campaign's decision to hold what was billed as a major foreign policy speech at the Victory Column.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), after objecting against a speech at Brandenburg Gate earlier, accepted the Victory Column as the venue for the Democratic presidential candidate's speech. She told German public broadcaster ARD, "we now take the venue as it is."
ty and

By Mathias Victorien Ntep When Condoleezza Rice came to Paris, as the first female African-American US Secretary of State some years back,

BERLIN (AP) - Barack Obama's campaign said Sunday he will give a speech on the future of trans-Atlantic relations in front of a Prussian war monument in downtown Berlin — in view of the historic Brandenburg Gate.
The announcement that he will speak at the Victory Column, or Siegessaeule, ended weeks of speculation here. It also triggered criticism that the 226-foot column built in 1873 to celebrate Prussian war victories over Denmark, Austria and France was an inappropriate choice.
ntral location for Berliners to party.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign confirmed on Sunday he will deliver a speech this week at the Victory

By Judy Dempsey BERLIN: The decision by Senator Barack Obama to speak at a landmark monument in Berlin this Thursday has opened up yet another controversy,

Finally, Barack Obama's campaign has settled on a site for his Berlin speech. But some German politicians have now criticized his choice as being one full of Nazi-related symbolism.
Finally, it's official. Barack Obama, when he arrives in Berlin on July 24, will hold his speech at the Siegessäule monument in the heart of the city, according to an announcement made by his campaign office in Chicago on Sunday. In his speech, he will speak about the "historic US-German partnership" and about the importance of strengthening trans-Atlantic relations, according to his campaign team.
Merkel, questioned whether the site -- where Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both spoke

Barack Obama will make his Berlin speech in front of the Siegessäule landmark next week, his team has confirmed to the press.
The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, often hailed as the new John F. Kennedy, is on a foreign tour, which will bring him to Germany on Thursday. He will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top German politicians before making a public speech.
and opted for the Siegessäule.

By MIKE ALLEN | 7/20/08 7:06 AM EST Photo: AP In the end, the Obama campaign said “nein” to a speech beside the fabled Brandenburg Gate.

For mature Americans, those who prefer their political meals come without cult of personality and megalomania seasoning, this campaign has been a difficult one. Barack Obama has made it so.
To wit: Music videos in which starlet Scarlett Johansson (with whom Obama has exchanged e-mail messages) breathily sings his praises; speeches overflowing with all sort of holier-than-thou, holier-than-politics rhetoric; the candidate's decision to accept the Democratic presidential nomination not at the Pepsi Center, where the party's convention is to be held in Denver, but at Invesco Field, where the Broncos play in front of 70,000 on Sundays; and his expressed desire, subsequently

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.
What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Ronald Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation...
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By Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US presidential candidate BarackObama has decided against using the Brandenburg Gate as abackdrop for a speech in

by Major Garrett The Obama campaign, confirming in part early reports out of Berlin, said the senator will not speak at the Brandenburg Gate,

By Nicholas Kulish BERLIN: The next round in Germany's favorite parlor game - where will Barack Obama give his public speech during his visit here next week - is under way.
All bets are now riding on the Victory Column in the former West Berlin, with the Brandenburg Gate visible less than a kilometer and a half, or a mile, away in the distance. The Obama campaign has yet to announce a location and declined to comment on the reports.
in 1938 to 1939 as part of the plan supervised by the regime's chief architect, Albert Speer, to rebuild the German capital.

Barack Obama will give his much talked about Berlin speech at the city's monumental victory column, not at historic Brandenburg Gate. Berlin dailies Berliner Zeitung and Berliner Morgenpost both report that a stage will be set up at the victory column so that Brandenburg Gate will be visible in the background. According to the Morgenpost, Obama's public appearance at the victory column is scheduled for 7 pm on July 24. Both papers report that the Obama campaign will announce its Berlin plans today in Chicago.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had voiced objections against an Obama speech at Brandenburg Gate, will meet with the Democratic presidential candidate in the chancellory

Last week on this page, we published an imaginary memo from an Obama adviser urging the Chosen One to speak at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. It concluded: "If this doesn't get you back on the cover of Newsweek, nothing will!"
We were wrong! Our July 21 issue of Newsweek arrived two days later with You'll Never Guess Who on the cover, and he hadn't even left yet for his Summer of Self-Love World Tour (featuring appearances in Jordan, the West Bank, Baghdad, Kabul, London, Paris, and Berlin, with occasional cameo roles for the Three Little Network Anchors Who Tagged Along).
ovember, in order to accomodate the increasingly frequent need of editors to showcase Barack-the-Transcendent

BERLIN (AFP) - Obamania is all the rage ahead of next week's visit to Berlin, Paris and London by a man described in newspapers as a "John Kennedy of our time" and Europe's champion in the race for the White House.
If western Europeans could vote in November's presidential election, Barack Obama, the 46-year-old Democratic senator, would be a shoo-in, according to a recent opinion poll conducted on behalf of Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
inuation of the policy of the current White House tenant, George W. Bush.

The campaign said the Democratic candidate decided that speaking at the Berlin landmark 'would be too presumptuous.'
July 19, 2008
en determined, although a German report pointed to the city's Victory Column, 1 1/2 miles away.