The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall continued their royal visit of Germany on Wednesday in Leipzig.
Prince Charles and Camilla arrived in the city from the Leipzig Hauptbahnhof Station before departing for St. Thomas’ Church and Leipzig City Hall.
The royals met with the Mayor of Leipzig, Burkhard Jung, and the Pastor of St. Thomas’ Church, Reverend Britta Taddiken; and were given a tour of the church to learn about its connection to Martin Luther, Bach, Wagner and Mendelssohn.
They were then treated to a concert of organ and choral music, whom they met afterwards along with the congregation, and then visited Bach’s grave.
Following their visit to the church, the royal couple visited Leipzig City Hall and signed the Golden Book of the City of Leipzig and the State of Saxony, which is only signed by prominent visitors.
They were greeted by Dr Anselm Hartinger, the Museum Director of Leipzig City Hall, which showcases 200 years of city history, per Clarence House.
Following this, Prince Charles attended a reception inside with the UK-Germany Connection group.
Per Clarence House, “UK-German Connection is a bilateral government initiative dedicated to increasing contacts and understanding between young people. It was established after Her Majesty The Queen’s State Visit to Germany in 2004 and is funded and supervised by the UK and German governments, the British Council and the German Pedagogical Exchange Service.”
Their Royal Highnesses then visited St. Nicholas’ Church, where they were greeted by Martin Henker, the Head of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church District of Leipzig, and Berhard Stief, the Pastor of the Church.
During their visit, they were treated to a history of the church and a tour of the Coventry Cross of Nails and the ‘Peaceful Revolution’ Cross, which helped bring about the end of German division in 1989.
Prince Charles met with Regina Schulz, Uwe Schwabe and Stephan Bickhardt, three of the key people involved in the Peaceful Revolution before laying a white rose at the memorial column for the Revolution.
Their visit to Leipzig ended with a visit by Prince Charles to Wörlitz Gardens, of which he is the patron. He paid his first visit to the gardens and planted a tree to commemorate his visit.
The Prince signed the Golden Book of the Dessau-Wörlitz Foundation and the Golden Book of the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt at the beginning of his visit, before taking a tour of the facilities, which included a journey on a long rowboat over Wörlitz Lake to the Garden’s island.
Per Clarence House, “Wörlitz Gardens is one of the biggest landscape gardens in Germany. The park was created by Prince Leopold III and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is part of a 430 square kilometre protected biosphere reserve and provides shelter for many species of plant and animal. The park is also home to a number of listed monuments and art collections.
“The Prince of Wales became Patron of the Wörlitz Gardens in 1996, having previously been Patron of an exhibition about the gardens at Worlitz which was held at the German Architecture Museum, Frankfurt, in March 1996.”
A touching moment came during a walkabout in the city square when Sun photographer Arthur Edwards showed Camilla the first official pictures of her newest step-grandson Archie.
Recounting to the Sun, Edwards said, “As Camilla came out of a church into the square in Leipzig the photos of the baby dropped. I said to the Duchess ‘would you like to see a picture of the baby?’ It was quite sunny and at first, she couldn’t really see the picture so enlarged it on the screen of my phone.”
Edwards said that Camilla gushed, “He’s lovely,” and asked him to show the photo to Prince Charles, but he was talking with the Mayor of Leipzig and Edwards didn’t want to disturb him.
Prince Charles and Camilla continue their royal visit to Germany on Thursday, visiting Berlin and Munich.
