BERLIN — BERLIN - He has drawn record-breaking crowds to rallies all over the United States. But it took a trip to Germany for Barack Obama to attract his biggest audience of all: More than 200,000 people packed into a central Berlin park yesterday to hear Obama give a wide-ranging speech on his call for closer ties between Europe and America.
The sea of people in the Tiergarten, Berlin's central park, stretched a full mile, from the Victory Column where Obama spoke to the historic Brandenburg Gate. Obama's rhetoric was no less sweeping. The likely Democratic nominee for president voiced aspirations for a world that abolishes nuclear arms, banishes "the scourge of AIDS," feeds the poor in Chad and Bangladesh, unites against Muslim extremism and stops global warming.
"People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment," he said. "This is our time." His campaign staged the event to maximize its visual impact. Cameras captured the scene from helicopters hovering overhead. Aides to the candidate hoisted photographers and reporters on a "cherry picker" crane to survey the view.
For his arrival, the Illinois senator walked alone around the Victory Column, a 226-foot-tall pillar near the center of the park. It is an ornate monument to Prussian war triumphs of the 19th century, including the 1871 defeat of France, which Obama will visit today.
The crowd roared as Obama made his way to the lectern where he stood for the speech. Police carrying rifles patrolled on a high ledge of the Victory Column.
The speech was the dramatic showpiece of a nine-day overseas trip that has taken Obama to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. After meeting in Paris today with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Obama will travel to London, his last stop.
In Berlin, Obama met yesterday morning with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Pakistan, Mideast peace talks, trade and the economy were on the agenda.
Before his arrival, Merkel had complained publicly about Obama considering the Brandenburg Gate as a location for his speech.
"I have always said that I think that the Brandenburg Gate is a good site for a speech of a U.S. president, or other presidents," she said Wednesday. "But a campaigning speech should not take place [there]."
Critics, led by Obama's Republican rival John McCain, said the Democrat's speech showed his presumptuousness about winning the White House.
