The Queen's Lecture

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Greeting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

A couple weeks ago, an email from the TU Berlin events department landed in my inbox:

Subject: 50th Anniversary of the Queen's Lecture
Body: Click here to find out how you can get a ticket!

Since it didn't look like Nigerian spammers, I clicked on the link to find out what this was all about.

The story is that in 1965, the Queen (officially "die Queen" in German, with no plural, and it only refers to her, the German word for a run-of-the-mill queen is "die Koenigin", plural "die Koeniginnen") came to TU Berlin and gave a lecture, starting a series of yearly lectures by prominent British scientists, engineers, architects, and so forth. At the time, the Cold War was in full swing, Berlin was divided, and TU Berlin was in the British sector. Humboldt University, which before the war was the top university in Berlin, was in the Soviet sector, and some prominent Soviet politician came to Humboldt and gave a talk. So, in support of technical higher education in the Western side and to foster intellectual collaboration between Germany and Britain, the Queen decided to come to Berlin and give a talk. She hasn't participated in the lecture since founding the series, but because this is the 50th anniversary, she decided to attend.

The TU Events Department figured a lot of people would be interested, so they set up a lottery with three kinds of seats: ones in which you would be at the lecture in person, ones in which you would be at the concert after the lecture in person, and ones in which you would attend both by TV feed (the lecture was carried live by RF Berlin). I decided to attend only if I got an in-person ticket, and sometime last week, my ticket arrived in my inbox...and it was an in-person ticket for the lecture! Woohoo!

Last Sunday as I was bicycling past the TU administration building, this stylish sign caught my eye:

A nice picture of Her Majesty giving the characteristic "Queen Wave". Maybe I'd get to witness a wave in person?

On Wednesday morning the day had finally arrived! I walked to work humming "Rule Britannia" eagerly anticipating the afternoon's event. When I got to Ernst Reuter Platz, I saw that they had decked it out in flags as they usually do when a foreign dignitary is visiting: a flag for Germany (the red, yellow, and black tricolor), the Union Jack, and - most notably - the flag of the European Union:

 I had read in Die Zeit, a German newspaper, that David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, was going to join the Queen for a state dinner with Chancellor Merkel in the evening. Perhaps the EU flag was a gentle reminder that Germany felt the EU project was worth continuing and hoped that Cameron could bring the British around to voting "yes" on his proposed referendum?

The doors to the Audimax, a huge auditorium in the administration building that holds maybe 250 people where the lecture was to take place, opened at 12:30 even though the talk didn't start until 2. Around quarter of one, I went over to the TU administration building expecting the worst for security. Would they make me take my shoes off like TSA does? But fortunately, I was in luck. They did make me take off my fleece jacket and leave it at the coatroom, and they insisted I turn my cell phone on before going through the metal detector, but other than that, they were pretty cool. No "shoes off" like the TSA at least.

A few times during the intervening hour and a half before the Queen arrived, a young woman walked out on the stage and explained what was going to happen. The Queen would enter with Joachim Gauck, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, his domestic partner Daniela Schadt, the lecturer Dr. Neil McGregor, head of the British Museum, and Dr. Christian Thomsen. Prince Phillip would also accompany the Queen. A fanfare would play, Handel's "Royal Fireworks Suite". We would all rise and remain standing until Her Majesty sat, then when she left exactly the same series of events in reverse would happen. The Queen would go to the Lichthof, an atrium in the center of the administrative building, for a short concert and to view a couple of TU projects, then depart. In addition to the guest of honor and her accompaniment, several foreign ambassadors and some German government officials would be there. 

Note that unlike the U.S., the President in Germany is just the Head of State and not the Head of Government. The head of government is the Chancellor, like the Prime Minister is in England So the President primarily participates in ceremonial events involving other heads of state, which the Queen is for Britain. In addition to the Head of State function, in Germany the President serves as a voice for democratic values and moral government, a function President Gauck's biography has well-prepared him for, since he is trained as a Lutheran minister and was instrumental in founding an organization that led to the peaceful downfall of the authoritarian DDR (East German) government when the Cold War ended.

Near two, I was getting bored with sitting (the cellphone reception inside Audimax was terrible) when suddenly people started clapping and standing up. I stood up and looked down and there was a woman in a bright orange dress walking through a sea of black and white suits and dresses. When she turned toward the balcony, I recognized her: it was Angela Merkel! Even though she hadn't been invited, she had decided to crash the party! She walked to the front of the auditorium, where she greeted some folks in the front, then sat down in the front row with a young looking guy, probably her secretary.

I was astounded by what I didn't see. I didn't see a bunch of bulky guys with a white earphone in their ears and a bulge about the size of a .45 automatic on their hips surrounding Frau Merkel, alertly looking around for threats, as would have been the case had President Obama walked into the room. There was just her and her secretary maybe, and the only security was the guys from the security firm providing coverage for the event, who weren't in evidence.

I sat back down and waited. A couple of short British films that had won awards at various film festivals played . They were not bad but it was difficult to hear the sound track over people talking.

Sometime around 2:30 there was a commotion in the back of the hall, the "Royal Fireworks Suite" started up, and in walked the Queen and her entourage. She was wearing a broad white hat and a white dress. She walked to the front row, and was greeted by Chancellor  Merkel (see above blurry photo), then sat down with the others.

Dr. Thomsen spoke first welcoming the Queen to TU Berlin:

Then Dr. McGregor spoke:

He talked about the founding of the Royal Family through King George the 3rd (villain of the American Revolution, at least from the American side) and his queen Charlotte (from Mecklenburg in Germany), who had 15 children. He spent some time on Queen Victoria and her love of animals, showing some portraits of her many dogs that she had painted by her favorite painter, Edwin Landseer, and how that interest had morphed into a history of work for animals and conservation on the part of the Royal Family. Prince Phillip continued that tradition, serving for many years as head of the World Wildlife Fund. Finally, he talked about English gardens and how they had influenced garden culture in Germany, starting with the English Garden in Munich, and ending with the fabulous Royal Gardens in Kew near London, which represented the epitome of English garden culture. He finished by showing the film made for the 2012 Olympics, in which James Bond, played by Daniel Craig from Skyfall, picks the Queen up in Buckingham Palace and takes a helicopter to the Olympic Stadium, from which they parachute into the Stadium on parachutes decorated with the Union Jack. The film was shown at the Olympics, immediately after which the Queen appeared, making it seem as if she had, indeed, parachuted into the stadium (at 85? hard to believe but my mother did a parachute jump at 75).

At 3:30 the group headed over to the Lichthof for the concert. I could actually see the proceedings much better since the TV camera was closer to the participants, another example of an event where being there in person was probably not the optimal way to view it, like the bicycle race I described in this post.  Here you can see the Queen in the white hat and dress arriving and taking here place for the concert:

After the concert, she viewed the two projects from TU Berlin students. One was a small robot that danced and waved to her. The other was a ball studded with 32 cameras that you could throw up in the air and it would trigger, taking a macro-selfie and a panoramic picture of the landscape. Although for most of the lecture and the concert, the Queen looked interested and serious, when she saw the robot, she smiled, as did Prince Phillip. On the other hand, during the whole event in Lichthof, Angela Merkel looked like a kid on Christmas, totally excited. It was really funny. I guess she must have felt like she was sitting next to a rock star.

As they were preparing to go, the Queen and Prince Phillip signed the Golden Book of Important Visitors that the TU Berlin keeps:

Prince Phillip spent some time paging through it, probably looking for their entry from 1965.

But then it was time to go. On the way out, I got this great picture of President Gauck and the Queen walking together:

and just before she stepped into her Bentley, a young girl presented her with flowers:

All in all, a very eventful day.

But no wave. At least, the robot got to wave, but it wasn't the same as the characteristic "Queen" wave that Her Majesty used to do so well. It was a bit disappointing but I guess to be understood, since she is after all 85 and not nearly as lively as she used to be.