Obama in Weimar
Apparently President Obama is planning to visit not only Dresden, but also my hometown Weimar next Friday.
The whole week they have been talking about little else on the radio here. The funny thing is that nobody seems to really know the plan for the day.
It is clear that his main reason for coming to Weimar is a visit to Buchenwald, the concentration camp.
But I think it would be sad if that’s all he gets to see of our town. The talk is that he might be having lunch in the restaurant our finest hotel, the Hotel Elephant (which, incidentally, my brother used to work at) and then maybe pay a visit to our beautiful, newly restored historic library Anna Amalia (which I myself used to work at for a short time several years back).
I would find it cool if he had time for a stroll through town, but I highly doubt it.
Nevertheless, I will keep my ears open all week and try to suss out the plans so that I can place myself strategically to try to get a glimpse – and maybe a photo – of him. It’s not every day that we have the POTUS in town, after all.
Sigh, this was all so much easier when the japanese emperor was in town. My brother, who worked at the Elephant at the time, did manage to include himself into the procession from the hotel over to the library. There was a great photo of him in the newspaper, him standing right behind the emperor in a dark suit, holding one of those folding umbrellas in his hand (which looked like a baton), looking serious. The caption said something about security people being everywhere around the emperor, some more conspicuous than others. What a hoot.
And I was working at the library at the time, so when the man strolled over with all his entourage, me and my co-workers were almost literally hanging out of a third-story window with an unimpeded view. And when he went inside to sign the Golden Book of the town, while all the normal people had to stay outside, we could watch him from the third floor through the wide central opening in the middle of the rococo hall.
That was pretty cool, but I doubt I will manage such a frontrow view of Obama. Especially not if all he visits is bloody Buchenwald.
