Cheers and beers before it’s down to G7 business
President Barack Obama was so keen to repair relations with Germany after a United States spying scandal that he vowed to buy a pair of traditional leather trousers yesterday before sipping wheat beer over breakfast with Angela Merkel.
Obama charmed an audience of villagers in the small community of Krun, giving the traditional Bavarian greeting of ‘‘Gruss Gott’’ and a short speech praising the beer, sausages and the local alphorn band.
The Bavarian sunshine and several hundred locals in traditional dirndls (milkmaid dresses) or lederhosen (leather trousers) with wool hats decorated with feathers and goat-hair plumes made for a picturesque start to the summit as Merkel and her husband, Joachim Sauer, welcomed Obama, who arrived without his wife, Michelle.
‘‘I forgot to bring my lederhosen, but I’m going to see if I can buy some when I’m here,’’ Obama told the villagers with his trademark grin after being serenaded by alphorns. ‘‘Then again, there’s never a bad day for a beer and a weisswurst [Bavarian white sausage]. And I can’t think of a better place to come to celebrate the enduring friendship between the German and the American people. ‘‘That was without question the best alphorn performance I have ever heard.’’
Obama made clear that his aim was to repair the frayed relations between the US and Germany. There is deep anger in the country at last year’s revelations of US eavesdropping on German communications, including Merkel’s own phone.
‘‘This morning, as we celebrate one of the strongest alliances the world has ever known, my message to the German people is simple: we are grateful for your friendship, for your leadership. We stand together as inseparable allies in Europe and around the world,’’ he said.
Merkel seemed much cooler in her welcoming address. ‘‘Although it is true we sometimes have differences of opinion today from time to time, but still the United States of America is our friend, our partner and indeed an essential partner with whom we cooperate very closely,’’ she said.
She sat Obama between the mayor and a farmer, who told him all about his 120-hectare farm and 100 cows. The FBI X-rayed Obama’s sausages and pretzels before they were served.
A glance at the table after Merkel’s 20-minute breakfast with Obama showed that the chancellor drank twice as much of her weissbier as her chief guest.
The beer was served by Franz Schubert, a local brewer whose daughter denied rumours that the leaders were given an alcohol-free version, given the early hour. ‘‘They were certainly not drinking alcoholfree beer – it was 5 per cent proof with an original gravity of 11 per cent,’’ Victoria Schubert said.
They were later joined by leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Italy and Japan on a stroll through wildflower fields before storm clouds gathered over the Schloss Elmau and political discussions began.