Guide Note

July 24, 2008: An estimated 100,000 people attended a speech by Barack Obama at Berlin's Victory Column.¹ Obama had originally wanted to give the speech from the Brandenburg Gate, but the location was changed after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she disapproved of the idea.²

Fast Facts

1. Date of speech: July 24, 2008³
2. Location: The Victory Column in downtown Berlin, Germany²
3. More than 100,000 people expected to attend¹
4. Obama expected to speak about U.S. and German partnership and strengthening trans-Atlantic relations²
5. Obama campaign originally considered the Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop for the speech³
6. Obama scrapped plans to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, saying it would be "too presumptuous"³
7. Victory Column completed in 1873²
8. Victory Column also known as the Siegessaeule monument²
9. Monument commemorates Prussian victories over Denmark, Austria and France⁴

Der Spiegel reported that Angela Merkel's administration felt Obama's speech might turn the Brandenburg Gate into "a backdrop for political campaigning."⁵ However, the new locale, at the city's Victory Column, brings its own controversy. The column is associated with both past German military victories and the regime of Adolf Hitler, who moved the column to its present location in 1939.⁴