The trip to Bergen-Belsen in the German state of Lower Saxony, north of the city of Hanover, marked the first time a British monarch has visited a concentration camp.
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After meeting Germany’s president and his partner, the Queen and Duke joined their hosts for a trip on the River Spree through the centre of Berlin.
The speech, which focused on historical references to the lessons of World War II, the fall of the Berlin Wall and German re-unification, was also a strong defence of Britain’s role in Europe. “That remains a common endeavour”, she said, before proposing a toast to Gauck and the people of Germany.
‘We know that division in Europe is risky and that we must guard against it in the West as well as in the East of our continent.
A German artist whose painting of a blue horse was presented as a gift to Britain’s visiting Queen Elizabeth II, prompting a quizzical reaction over its “strange colour”, defended her work Friday.
Germany’s president Joachim Gauck said in his banquet speech that the EU needed the United Kingdom and it would support a “constructive dialogue” on the reforms Cameron wanted.
The prince, who was spotted sharing a joke with the Queen at one point during the meal, said: “We had a good table and I know her of course as a relative and I see her once in a while”.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Queen’s speech speaks for itself on the threats of division and the benefits of unity. Britain is a part of Europe, after all”.
The Prime Minister wants to renegotiate Britain’s membership ahead of a referendum by the end of 2017 and although the issue is not on the formal agenda for the Brussels summit he will have an opportunity over dinner tomorrow to explain to the EU’s 28 national leaders the reforms he is seeking.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, met with survivors and ex- British soldiers who were among those who liberated the camp where teenage diarist Anne Frank and her sister Margot died 70 years ago.
The Telegraph’s art critic, Mark Hudson, said Leidenfrost displayed “a awful mixture of faux-naïve brushwork and commercialised slickness in her treatment of Pop Art subjects”.
As somebody who lived through the horrors of the Second World War, one would imagine this will be quite an emotional moment for her. That will be the last stop on what has been an action packed three days for the Queen in which the warmth of her personality nearly certainly won over many a German fence sitter.
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The queen has several other residences but spends about a third of her time in the London palace, which was first used by her ancestor Queen Victoria.
