MADRID: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will on Friday become the first German head of state to visit Guernica, the Basque town devastated by a Nazi air raid during Spain’s civil war in one of the first modern air bombings of civilians.
Accompanied by Spain’s King Felipe VI and Basque regional president Imanol Pradales, the German president will lay a wreath at a cemetery housing a mausoleum built in 1973 for hundreds of victims of the bombings.
Speaking at a gala dinner hosted by the King and his wife, Queen Letizia, in Madrid on Wednesday, Steinmeier said Germans bear “a heavy burden of guilt in Guernica” and called the bombing “a warning to stand up for peace, freedom and the protection of human rights.”
“It is very important to me that we – and I am deliberately addressing this sentence to my compatriots in Germany – do not forget what happened back then. This crime was committed by Germans,” Steinmeier said.
The visit comes as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) tops some nationwide polls and is expected to perform strongly in five state elections next year, fueling debate about the limits of political cooperation with the party.
