While she has made countless milestones and memories over her 70-year reign, Royal Central is taking a look back at Her Majesty’s historic 1965 visit to West Germany in honour of the Platinum Jubilee.
Her Majesty The Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh paid a state visit as the climax of a political reconciliation that had been pushed hard by both the British and German governments. The push came after former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and leading Weimar Republic politician, Dr Konrad Adenaue,r retired from their leadership positions within their respective governments in the year prior.
Over the previous two years, a government decision favouring the visit had been rumored but nothing had actually happened. Macmillan reportedly advised against a visit while he was in office. It’s believed he thought the visit would be highly controversial in the UK. Since the end of World War II, anti-German feelings had been lingering throughout Britain but over time, became less harsh than they were immediately after the war.
The 10-day visit to the Federal Republic of Germany (or West Germany) would mark the first official visit by a British sovereign since King George V visited in 1913 to attend the wedding of Princess Victoria of Prussia. The visit would mark the 20-year anniversary of the end of World War II and help to symbolize the reconciliation between the two countries. It also helped recognise Germany’s efforts to reemerge as a power in Europe.
The visit was deemed extremely successful. President Heinrich Lübke and the German people extended warm welcomes as Her Majesty and the Duke toured the country. Traveling a majority of the time by special train, stops on the tour included a performance at the Schiller National Museum in Marbach. There, The Queen listened to performance alongside German Prime Minister Kurt Georg Kiesinger. She also took a cruise on the Rhine, on a route traveled by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
Her Majesty would not make a state visit to West Germany again until May 1978.
