Dutch State Visit to Germany Begins

Today, Monday July 5, Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima started a three-day state visit to Germany accompanied by several Ministers.
Upon their arrival the Royal Couple was officially welcomed by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, Elke Büdenbender at Bellevue Palace with a military guard of honour.
The King and the President inspected the guard of honour and then were played the national anthems. Inside the Palace took place a reception and the guest book was signed.
In early afternoon King Willem-Alexander, along with the President, paid a visit to the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin Mitte.
The center was founded in 1994 and is the German partner of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.
In the meantime Queen Maxima was at the Dutch embassy where she attended at the signing of a memorandum between the Prinses Máxima Centrum in Utrecht and the Hopp Children’s Tumor Center Heidelberg. During the event the Queen met with the medical director of the Utrecht pediatric oncology center and the director of the Hopp Children’s Tumor Center.
Afterwards the King and the Queen laid a wreath at the Neue Wache, a memorial for the victims of war and violence.
Then the Royal Couple, accompanied by the mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, visited the Brandenburg Gate where they posed for the photos. At the Rotes Rathaus, the city hall of the city and state of Berlin, the King and the Queen were officially welcomed by the mayor.
Later King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima paid a visit to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), “the government’s central scientific institution in the field of biomedicine”. They were informed about its history and about pandemics.
The first day ended with a state banquet in Bellevue Palace hosted by the German President.
The King started his speech by thanking both the President and the mayor and he also stressed the “true strength” of the friendship between the two countries. In his speech the King also praised the German Chancellor Angela Merkel for being “a beacon of reliability and dedication to the people in the Netherlands in an uncertain world”.

Na een fotomoment bij de Brandenburger Tor met burgemeester Müller is er een gesprek in het raadhuis van de stad Berlijn: het Rotes Rathaus. Het Koninklijk Paar tekent het Gouden Boek van Berlijn. #staatsbezoek #NLGermany pic.twitter.com/zl6fkYCzpE

— Koninklijk Huis (@koninklijkhuis) July 5, 2021

Filed under The Netherlands
Tagged Chancellor Merkel of Germany, Germany, King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands, President Steinmeier of Germany, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, State Visit.