A former East German "secretary for agitation and propaganda" welcoming the US President

Obama and Merkel behind a wall of armored glass at the Brandeburger Gate.

US President Barack Obama, who is on his first official visit to Germany, was this afternoon -on the previous East German side of the Brandenburger Gate - welcomed by a former secretary for "agitation and propaganda" of the DDR Communist Party youth organization Freie Deutsche Jugend at the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin (who also happens to be the present German chancellor). 

While listening to Merkel praising the fight for freedom (in which she played no part) in the Soviet satellite DDR, the President apparently felt a need to demonstrate the informal nature of this official visit, by quenching his thirst in this way:

Or was it that the hosts had forgotten to provide glasses?


PS

The speeches at the Brandenburger Gate were of course full of praise for the "close relationship" between the two countries. The sad reality is, however, that Germany has for years chosen not to be a close ally of the United States.