TAZ: Berlin revolves around Obama (Updated 3x)

Beethovenqueen has translated another article from that definitely-not-in-the-tank German website TAZ especially for RBO readers:

Berlin dreht sich um Obama (Berlin revolves around Obama)
von (by) Sebastian Heiser and Martin Kaul.

Wenn US-Präsidentschaftsanwärter Barack Obama am Donnerstag vor der Siegessäule seine lang erwartete Rede hält, ist Kritik unerwünscht.

Innerhalb der USA garantiert der erste Verfassungszusatz nahezu uneingeschränkte Redefreiheit. Dort dürfen etwa Neonazis mit Hakenkreuzarmbinden demonstrieren, den Holocaust leugnen und “Mein Kampf” von Adolf Hitler verteilen. Doch wenn der Möchtegernpräsident Barack Obama (Demokraten) am Donnerstag an der Siegessäule spricht, will er die Meinung des Publikums nicht wissen: “Plakate oder Transparente sind nicht gestattet”, heißt es auf der Website Obamas.

Translation:

When US Presidential candidate Barack Obama holds his long awaited speech at the Victory Monument on Thursday, critique is not wanted.

The first amendment guarantees practically umlimited Freedom of Speech within the USA. Nazis are allowed to demonstrate wearing swastika-armbands, deny the Holocaust, and distribute copies of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”. But when wannabe president Barack Obama (democrat) speaks at the Victory Monument on Thursday, he doesn’t want to know what public opinion is: “Posters and banners are not allowed”, states Obama’s website.

The article also mentions that the SPD (Sozialdemokratisch Partei Deutschlands), German’s own democratic party, is not thrilled about its citizens being silenced, Beethovenqueen writes:

Das Plakatverbot wird von der SPD ‘ausdrücklich sehr bedauert’, heißt es in einer Mitteilung, mit der die Zentrale des Landesverbands die Parteimitglieder zur Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung aufruft.

Translation:

The SPD ‘emphatically regrets’ the poster ban” was included in a message calling for party members to participate in Obama’s event.

The article also goes on to list the number of police hired to protect Obama, including their monetary cost to the German citizens.

Beethovenqueen calculated the costs:

Thursday: 700 police men & women, working 8 hour shifts @ 20 Euros/hour = 112,000 Euros = $180,320 (xchange r ate 1 Euro = 1.61 US dollars; lowest dollar value EVER, btw)

Friday: 400 police men & women, working 8 hour shifts @ @ 20 Euros/hour = 64,000 Euros = $103,040

For a Grand Total of nearly $300,000!

Beethoven comments:

What a bargain for a 45 minute speech by a Democratic presumptive nominee!!

Updates:

#1: Commenter Tobias Ganstrup informs that:

There is missing an important detail in the translation. It’s not the national headquarter of the SPD, who regrets the poster ban, it is the “Landesverband” – only the Berlin Section of the party.

Danke.

#2: Jefferson Chase from the Deutsche Welle reported July 23, 2008, that a “small minority is questioning whether the Democratic candidate can live up to the hype — or justify the costs.”

In the build-up to what is probably the most anticipated American campaign speech ever held on foreign soil, one of Berlin’s main city magazines offered its readership cut-out American flags to wave at Barack Obama’s planned address. [...]

Those who want to hear Obama live have been told to start arriving three hours earlier. Berlin authorities say that as many as a million people could attend. Four TV stations are broadcasting the entire speech, and the rest are scrambling to secure prime locations at the site.

Only around 13,000 Americans live in Berlin. So what is motivating Berliners and Germans in general to treat a Democratic presidential hopeful to such a royal welcome?

He’s not Bush [...] A significant part of Obama’s popularity in Germany can be traced to the deep antipathy many Germans feel toward George W. Bush, particularly in the wake of the Iraq War. [...]

But not everyone, of course, is euphoric about the conditions under which Obama will appear in Berlin.

Those wishing to attend have been advised that signs and posters will be prohibited at the speech — a move that has come in for criticism particularly from the left. There has been speculation that the Obama camps wants to avoid pictures of Germans making anti-American statements that could hurt the candidate back home.

Others say the ban is aimed at preventing political activists from making demands of Obama on uncomfortable issues. The World Wide Fund for Nature plans to flout the prohibition by issuing members T-shirts with pictures of polar bears and the words “Yes, You Can!” as a way of encouraging Obama to take a tougher line on environmental protection.

Moreover, some residents of Germany’s perennially cash-strapped capital have taken umbrage at the fact that Obama’s visit will cost a half-million euros ($786,000) — half of which will be born by German public funds.