Sighting
It happened again. I was walking passed the Neue Wache, a memorial right next to where I work dedicated to those killed by war and tyranny. I noticed that police had stopped the flow of traffic (both in the street and the sidewalk) clearing the area in front of the Neue Wache. A small crowd had gathered and got as close to the Neue Wache as the police would permit. Of course I joined them in an attempt to figure out what the commotion was about. I was standing there patiently with the crowd when suddenly a long caravan of police on motorcycles and black Mercedes pulled up. Out of the leading Mercedes stepped out Armando Guebuza, President of Mozambique, with his family. In a brief ceremony the president laid a wreath at the famous sculpture Mother with her Dead Son by Käthe Kollwitz, then was quickly whisked away.
Wreath laid by the President of Mozambique
This isn’t the first time this has happened. Last month the exact same scenario played out. I was walking home and the police stopped me just short of the Neue Wache. This time, however, it was King Harold V of Norway who laid the wreath. I had no idea that this memorial was so sought by world politicans.
I think this puts my total notables seen in Berlin at seven:
- Indian Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu at the SPD climate conference, whom I was able to talk to for a few minutes
- Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Die Neue Welt exhibition opening at my museum
- King Harold V of Norway
- Prime Minister José Sócrates also at the Neue Welt
- Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the museum’s 20th birthday celebration
- Singer/Songwriter Wolf Biermann who performed a concert after Kohl spoke
- President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique
Hopefully I’ll see some more celebrates in the coming weeks, although anymore would just be ridiculous.
