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Picture-perfect summit 2015: Krün's mayor is reminiscing - that happened with Obama's wheat beer glass

2022-05-22T14:04:51.364Z


Picture-perfect summit 2015: Krün's mayor is reminiscing - that happened with Obama's wheat beer glass Created: 05/22/2022, 15:48 In Krün in 2015, then-US President Barack Obama discussed pretzels and wheat beer with Mayor Thomas Schwarzenberger. Obama later thanked the “First Mayor” of the Alpine community in a letter. © Steffen Kugler/DPA In 2022, Krün's Mayor Thomas Schwarzenberger will host


Picture-perfect summit 2015: Krün's mayor is reminiscing - that happened with Obama's wheat beer glass

Created: 05/22/2022, 15:48

In Krün in 2015, then-US President Barack Obama discussed pretzels and wheat beer with Mayor Thomas Schwarzenberger.

Obama later thanked the “First Mayor” of the Alpine community in a letter.

© Steffen Kugler/DPA

In 2022, Krün's Mayor Thomas Schwarzenberger will host the G7 summit in Elmau for the second time.

He fondly remembers the last one in 2015.

Krün – For the first time in years, Mayor Thomas Schwarzenberger takes the famous wheat beer glass from the town hall cupboard.

The then US President Barack Obama sipped a little wheat beer from it at the G7 summit in 2015 - non-alcoholic, as it later became known.

The pictures from Krün of Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel having a white sausage breakfast in the midst of locals in lederhosen and dirndl went around the world.

The mayor of the town in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen has been keeping Obama's and the chancellor's glasses in the cupboard of his office ever since.

G7 summit in Elmau: Seven years after meeting with Obama – Mayor in focus again

Now the mayor is preparing for the summit again.

Its community includes Schloss Elmau, where the heads of state and government of seven leading industrial nations will meet again from June 26th to 28th.

Some locals are not enthusiastic about the restrictions this brings to the region.

When asked if he was happy himself, Schwarzenberger likes to quote Karl Valentin: "I'm happy when it rains, because if I'm not happy, it's raining too." In view of the war in Ukraine, the meeting is more important than ever.

His greatest hope is that it will bring results for peace.

G7 summit 2022 in Elmau: Probably not an idyllic white sausage breakfast this time

Will summit participants make another trip to Krün and eat white sausage together in a relaxed manner?

Schwarzenberger does not believe that there could be a breakfast revival in a Bavarian idyll with US President Joe Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Corona, Ukraine, different schedule: "The general conditions are different."

(Our GAP newsletter keeps you up to date with all the important stories from your region. Sign up here.)

Although the annexation of Crimea in 2015 already cast a shadow and turned the planned G8 summit into a G7 summit: the wheat beer glass seems like a souvenir from a carefree time.

"It's a normal wheat beer glass," says Schwarzenberger.

"It doesn't look spectacular." The Karg brewery in Murnau supplied the beer and glass - nothing special in itself, says Schwarzenberger modestly.

At the time, however, he had the presence of mind to ensure that the special glass was taken care of before Obama left City Hall Square on June 7, 2015.

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The busy mayor, who has been head of town hall for 20 years, confidently chaired the first citizens' meeting with representatives from the Federal Press Office, State Chancellery, district administrators and mayors from the region for the summit at the end of February.

The “Münchner Merkur” called him “Mr G7”.

The CSU man sits on the district and district councils, a full-blooded local politician with a thoroughly statesmanlike demeanor.

It is rumored that he could one day hold higher offices.

The village of 2,000 is the only place in Germany to receive the G7 summit a second time.

There was a riot at Heiligendamm in 2007.

The 2017 G20 meeting in Hamburg ended with riots.

In Krün, everything remained largely peaceful in 2015 - a picture-perfect summit.

G7 summit 2022 in Elmau: The picture book summit of 2015 is to be repeated

In front of the town hall in Krün, a copy of the beer bench from back then commemorates the meeting and Obama's visit, with a photo of Obama surrounded by his hosts and a text on the table top.

In winter the bench is dismantled.

In the meantime, bridal couples are taking a seat there again – the bench is still popular as a photo backdrop, says Schwarzenberger.

The original plan to set up a G7 museum with memorabilia in the community came to nothing - too expensive.

"It would have been in deficit, so we rejected it," says Schwarzenberger.

There is a lack of premises;

the museum would have devoured a high five-figure or even six-figure sum, plus running costs.

G7 summit 2022 in Elmau: Mayor hopes for "future full of opportunities"

It would also have been a place for the letters of thanks from Washington that arrived after the meeting seven years ago.

Schwarzenberger says he had a “little pen pal” with Obama, letters went back and forth twice.

With sender "The White House Washington" and signed with a flourish by US President Obama, he thanks "Dear Mayor Schwarzenberger".

Visits like these gave him great hope for "a future full of opportunities for all people," wrote the US President.

When the world turns its gaze to the region again in June, then this hope - for a future full of opportunities for everyone - will certainly have dwindled for many.

You can find more current news about the 2022 summit at Merkur.de/G7-Gipfel Elmau

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-22

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