An Extraordinary Partnership: "If [Chancellor Angela] Merkel had been offended that [Pres. Barack] Obama failed to visit Berlin, she did not let on publicly. By now, she recognized the President's enormous popularity in Germany, and she seized the opportunity to welcome him back.".

• Author: Clark, Claudia
• Position: WORLDVIEW

THE DAY immediately after Pres. Barack Obama's 2009 speech in Cairo, he made a sojourn to Germany. As part of his broader goal of visiting historic World War II landmarks on this anniversary trip, he opted to visit the city of Dresden, followed by a tour of the former concentration camp of Buchenwald. In the years that followed World War II, Dresden had become famous for the gruesome bombing campaign led by the British and American armies, a multiday military offensive that ultimately resulted in the deaths of between 18,000 and 25,000 Germans.

Reflecting Obama's tremendous popularity among the German people, the local citizens held a two-day welcoming party on the city's historical market square in anticipation of his visit. Mayor Helma Orosz saw the President's visit as "an important event" in the city's history.

While the citizens of Dresden were happy about the President's visit, his decision to go there in lieu of the traditional official state visit to Berlin caused controversy in both countries. Some Germans viewed the decision as a slight to Chancellor Angela Merkel, while her foreign policy critics went so far as to blame Merkel for what they saw as a deteriorating relationship between the U.S. and Germany since Obama had taken office. On the other side of the Atlantic, one of Obama's critics, the conservative blog Power Line, ran the headline, "Dresden: Next Stop on Apology Tour?" and implied that the President's decision demonstrated an expression of regret for America's wartime behavior.

Despite the criticism on both fronts, Obama and Merkel made valuable use of the President's time in Germany, which included a visit to a historic church and a trip to the former concentration camp of Buchenwald in between Obama's meeting and press conference with Merkel. The two began with a tour of Frauenkirche Dresden, the city's "Church of Our Lady," which had been rebuilt after World War II firebombing destroyed it. Their stopover at the church provided the two world leaders with an opportunity to spend time together in an informal yet educational capacity. At this point, the two were still strangers, but this visit allowed them to get to know one another without the challenges of the formality that accompanied traditional state visits.

The pair then held a bilateral meeting and hosted a joint press conference, which followed the usual format: opening remarks by both leaders, followed by questions from the press corps. Apparently unbothered...