Dutch State Visit to Germany: 5-7 July 2021


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The State Visit is postponed due to the corona virus.

TM and President Steinmeyer agreed to postpone the visit.
 
Understandable given the crisis in Europe,thanks for the update.
 
They will bring along 5 (!) ministers, which shows the importance of Germany to the Netherlands perhaps.

A nice way to end the visits to the various Bundesländer and still on time to serve as a sort of goodbye to Angela Merkel.

The state visit will take place in an altered form, so I assume we will miss out on most of the things that normally make such a visit nice to watch. If there is a state dinner I assume the Queen will wear a tiara, as she did when she accompanied Queen Beatrix on her state visit to Germany.
 
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra will accompany the King and Queen to Berlin. They will perform on the second evening of the visit. They will be conducted by Iván Fischer and will be playing Mozart's 4th violin concerto in D major, KV 218 with Sylvia Huang as the solist. They will also play Beethoven's 4th symphony.

The orchestra also accompanied Queen Beatrix during her last German state visit in 2011. It will be the first performance abroad for the orchestra since the COVID pandemic started.

Source: royalblog
 
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima have arrived in Germany, day 1 of the state visit has started.

The King and Queen were received by the Federal President Steinmeier and his wife and attended a wreath laying at the Neue Wache, King Willem-Alexander visited the Anne Frank Centre and Queen Máxima attended a conference about the Dutch-German collaboration in pediatric oncology with the Hopp-Kindertumorzentrum (KiTZ) at the Dutch Embassy in Berlin. Afterwards the King and Queen visited the Robert Koch Institute, the Brandenburger Tor and the Town Hall.


** Pic 1 ** Pic 2 ** Pic 3 ** anp gallery ** rex gallery ** rex gallery 2 ** rex gallery 3 **


** ppe gallery ** ppe gallery 2 ** ppe gallery 3 ** ppe gallery 4 **


** gettyimages gallery ** morgenpost.de liveblog **


And King Willem-Alexander has been co-pilot on the flight:


** Pic **

 
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What a shame about the rain, hopefully the sun will come back from the State Visit.
 
Do we know if there will be a state dinner?
 
Do we know if there will be a state dinner?
Yes there will be one today evening. I hope it is the same dresscode as in 2011 which would be black tie.
 
Will there be any speeches or activities connected to the Dutch Royal House's own German ancestry, most recently from the King's German father?
 
Will there be any speeches or activities connected to the Dutch Royal House's own German ancestry, most recently from the King's German father?


So far nothing of that kind has been announced. Tomorrow they will visit the Bundestag and the Bundesrat and will meet Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Chancellery. The mentioned concert, a German-Dutch hydrogen symposium, a visit to the Technical University and the Humboldt Forum are also on the programme for Tuesday and Wednesday.

In addition to the already posted ppe galleries, here's one more from the Brandenburger Tor:


** ppe gallery **
 
Will there be any speeches or activities connected to the Dutch Royal House's own German ancestry, most recently from the King's German father?

Unlikely, although he might reference it in his speech. This is the final visit to Germany over several years to all of the different 'states' ('deelstaten' in Dutch, not sure about the English translation) in Germany; I seem to remember that in previous visits where appropriate this link was made. I don't expect it to feature prominently in this state visit.

One advantage of course is that he speaks German (although Máxima doesn't - but she might understand it somewhat after spending so many skiing holidays in Austria, her husband being able to speak German (her daughters most likely learning it at school,) and given that the language isn't too hard to understand if you speak Dutch).
 
State Banquet:
 
Thanks for the video. Good to see former president Gauck and his partner there too. They have met the king and queen quite often in the past and always appeared to be great company.

It seems the leg issues fortunatly didn't sour the mood of mrs. Steinmeier, who seems to be enjoying herself greatly.

I assume the man in the wheelchair is Mr. Schäuble?

The queen seems to have difficulties understanding what people say due to the mouth masks. It seems they brought the health minister along. In his speech the king thanked for the solidarity that was shown by germany in helping out over-streched Dutch hospitals, so the attendance of the health minister may make sense.

And I am afraid to ask but is the woman in the pink dress Sylvie Meis?
 
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Great to see that our ad interim minister of foreign affairs also speaks German (unlike the minister of Public Health).

When the queen first arrived she looked a little harsh but once smiling that quickly turned around - but I don't think her jewelry was really helpful. The king isn't as good in smiling as his wife. It looks like he needs to put in a lot of effort to smile on command.
 
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Interesting that the choice was made to fly to Berlin...perhaps to highlight the new Brandenburg airfield that is finally open?


What about because Berlin is the capitol of Germany....oh really..
 
What about because Berlin is the capitol of Germany....oh really..

I assume the question was about why FLY if it is not that far and could for example be reached by train (or car).
 
I assume the question was about why FLY if it is not that far and could for example be reached by train (or car).

Between the jet and the surfeit of giant diamonds at a republican black-tie dinner, there is a slight note of "careless excess" in these times, although the visit seems to be going very smoothly.
 
Sylvie is a former Dutch model and a well known TV personality, now based in Germany.
 
Interesting that the choice was made to fly to Berlin...perhaps to highlight the new Brandenburg airfield that is finally open?

Maybe it was simply a question of practicability and convenience. The train journey from Den Haag to Berlin takes around 6,5 hours, from Amsterdam it’s also more that 6 hours, by plane it‘s only a bit more than 1 hour to reach Berlin. And a journey by plane is much more comfortable ;)


Here’s a copy of the King‘s speech at the state dinner (held in German):


** In Dutch ** In German ** Google translation **
 
Between the jet and the surfeit of giant diamonds at a republican black-tie dinner, there is a slight note of "careless excess" in these times, although the visit seems to be going very smoothly.

Might it be that the journey by car or train would take 6-7 hours? Hardly practical, IMO.
 
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