Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is about to visit the U.S. Army Garrison in Grafenwöhr. He will speak to American soldiers and thank them. It is the first visit of this kind in 26 years.
Berlin, July 11th, 2022. Update: 10:55 a.m. CEDT (The Berlin Spectator) — Located in Bavria’s Upper Palatinate region, Grafenwöhr is not exactly a tourist magned. This quiet town with some 6,000 inhabitants is not known for the few traffic lights it has, or its few supermarkets, but for the U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria. Thousands of American soldiers stationed there also call the base “Home of 7th Army Training Command”.
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Four Locations
Base commander Col. Christopher R. Danbeck from Connecticut, who has been deployed in Iraq and served at several Army bases in the U.S. as well as at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, is responsible for a garrison with four locations. They are Grafenwoehr, Vilseck, Hohenfels and Garmisch. Col. Danbeck and his men and women will be welcoming an important guest on Wednesday, July 13th, 2022.
Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is scheduled to visit them. He is the first Federal President to visit an American military base since 1996, when one of his predecessors, the late Roman Herzog, went to one of them. Since then, the number of U.S. soldiers in Germany has decreased a lot, but 38,000 of them are still in the Federal Republic.
Unity and Resolve
Steinmeier wants to thank the American soldiers in Germany for their contribution to the country’s security and that of all NATO partners in Europe, according to his office in Berlin. In his speech to the U.S. troops he also intends to acknowledge and appreciate the unity and resolve the transatlantic partnership is showing. On top of it all, President Steinmeier wants to reiterate Germany’s commitment to solidarity in the alliance.
Amy Gutmann, the new U.S. Ambassador to Germany, General Darryl Anthony Williams, the commanding General of ‘United States Army Europe and Africa’, will accompany Frank-Walter Steinmeier during his visit at the Bavarian base. The President will be welcomed with military honors. After his speech to the soldiers, Steinmeier will be talking to members of the Third U.S. Infantry Division and inspect weapons and vehicles.
Argument Resolved
Since Donald Trump lost the presidential elections and was replaced by Joe Biden, the relations between Germany and the United States of America have improved substantially. Because of Russia’s war of aggression against its neighbor Ukraine, the two countries have moved together even more. One of the arguments Berlin had with both Republican and Democratic U.S. Presidents, the one about Germany’s modest military spending, has been resolved since Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced his country would invest 100 billion Euro (107 billion U.S. Dollars or 85 billion Pounds Sterling) into its armed forces and stick to the 2 percent approach.
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