State visit to Germany 30+ years ago: Charles and Diana visited Bonn

Bonn · In the winter of 1987, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess Charles and Diana visited the old capital Bonn. Thousands of people welcomed the royal guests. Charles surprised them with a very special gesture.

Diana and Charles were guests in Bonn in 1987.

Diana and Charles were guests in Bonn in 1987.

Foto: GA-Archiv

When the British King Charles III begins his three-day state visit to Germany this Wednesday afternoon, many a long-established Bonn resident will remember the year 1987. That was when Charles travelled to Bonn as part of a larger tour of Germany. The events today and then show parallels, but differ in some essential details: this time Charles is accompanied by his wife Camilla, then the 26-year-old Princess Diana. And above all, Charles is now a newly crowned king after the death of his mother Elizabeth - back then the throne was still a long way off for him.

This did not dampen the enthusiasm with which the people of Bonn received the royal couple Charles and Diana on 2 November 1987. After an overnight stay at the Berlin Residence, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess flew to Bonn at 11 a.m. - with Prince Charles at the controls of the aircraft. After all, he is the commander of the Royal Air Force School. Some 8,000 Bonn citizens held out for hours behind barriers to get a glimpse of the Prince and Princess.

Charles gives acceptance speech in Bonn in German

An archive report in the General-Anzeiger states that the carriage bearing the Prince of Wales' coat of arms stopped in front of the Old Town Hall at 2.40 p.m. sharp. The then Lord Mayor Hans Daniels (CDU) welcomes the couple, the scene is accompanied by the cheers of onlookers. Many of them wave flags with the British flag or the "Bonn" logo, on which the "o" is replaced by a kissing mouth. "A real king! No, I never thought I'd see the day!" one woman exclaims delightedly. Walking through the crowd, Princess Diana is accompanied by Bonn's former mayor Jürgen Endemann (FDP) and Chief City Manager Dieter Diekmann (CDU). In the Gobelin Hall of the Old Town Hall, Charles gives a speech of thanks entirely in German - which goes down well with the hosts - and signs the Golden Book of the City of Bonn.

On the evening of 2 November, the couple travels to the "Redoute" ballroom in Bad Godesberg, where the then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker and his wife Marianne host a banquet in honour of Charles and Diana. Prominent guests lined up there to welcome the Crown Prince and Crown Princess: Bundestag President Philipp Jenninger, Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Bernhard Vogel and US Ambassador Richard Burt arrived, as did tennis star Boris Becker, fashion designer Jil Sander and Margrave Max von Baden. In the GA article about the event, special attention is paid to Charles' wife: "In her slim black velvet dress, with a brilliant tiara and her hair pinned up, the Princess looked very delicate," it says. And the menu of the banquet is also recounted in detail: The party celebrated with "terrine of chanterelles, fig confit, lobster consomme with turbot, caramel pear and plum sorbet". In his dinner speech, President von Weizsäcker spoke of the "trusting naturalness" of the German-British friendship.

While the people of Bonn will probably reminisce about the couple for a long time after the visit, Charles and Diana will continue their journey without a break: Afterwards they will travel to Cologne, where they will visit the cathedral and sign the Golden Book in the town hall. Charles also opens the "Best of Britain" trade fair. They then continue on to Munich, Hamburg and Celle.

(Original text: Nina Bärschneider; Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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