the 90 year old Duke of Kent<\/a>
\nwill play a vital role in one of the most important parts of the
\ntrip.<\/p>\nAs the State Visit concludes, President Steinmeier is heading to
\nCoventry to attend a memorial service there. The city was heavily
\nbombed during World War Two and its cathedral had to be rebuilt
\nafter serious damage. It is seen as a place of reconciliation and
\nforgiveness and the President will be joined there by the Duke of
\nKent.<\/p>\n
The Duke will accompany the German President on a tour of
\nCoventry Cathedral. Only parts of the medieval church, including
\nthe spire, survived the bombing and the new cathedral was
\nconsecrated in 1962. The two men will see some of the symbols of
\nreconciliation that are in the church including the Charred Cross
\nwhich was made from the ruins of the old cathedral.<\/p>\n
They will also see the statue of Reconciliation which was
\npresented to the Cathedral in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of
\nthe end of World War Two. A similar copy has been given to the
\nHiroshima Peace Park in Japan.<\/p>\n
The Duke of Kent has been heavily involved in reconciliation
\nmovements between the UK and Germany and attended the consecration
\nof the new church in Dresden. It had to be rebuilt after heavy
\nbombing raids by British and US troops in the final months of World
\nWar Two. Dresden was very badly damaged and 25,000 people were
\nkilled.<\/p>\n
Another poignant moment will follow when the Duke of Kent and
\nthe President of Germany meet veterans.<\/p>\n
The visit is one of the stand out moments of the State Visit and
\nthe importance that King Charles places on the role of the Duke of
\nKent within the Royal Family has been underlined by his involvement
\nat Coventry.<\/p>\n
The State Visit got under way on December 3 with an official
\nwelcome ceremony at Windsor Castle hosted by King Charles and Queen
\nCamilla.<\/p>\n
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, Elke
\nBudenbender, had been met at Heathrow by the Prince and Princess of
\nWales who accompanied them to Windsor.<\/p>\n
A carriage procession through the town to the castle
\nfollowed.<\/p>\n
After the ceremonial, which included the inspection of a Guard
\nof Honour, the German President was hosted for lunch where other
\nmembers of the Royal Family, including the Duke and Duchess of
\nEdinburgh, joined them.<\/p>\n
They were all later shown parts of the Royal Collection with
\nparticular links to Germany. Queen Victoria\u2019s husband, Prince
\nAlbert, featured heavily in the display and he had a big influence
\non the stand out moment of the State Visit which followed
\nlater.<\/p>\n
The State Banquet at Windsor Castle saw the Princess of Wales
\nwere the Circlet tiara which Prince Albert helped design for Queen
\nVictoria. The Prince Consort was inspired by Indian architecture
\nand created a diadem based on pointed arches. These are covered in
\ndiamonds and have a central stone. In Albert\u2019s day, they were opals
\nbut when Queen Alexandra became the owner of the tiara, she
\nswitched those for rubies.<\/p>\n
The tiara was left to the Crown by Victoria and since then has
\nonly ever been worn by queens. Kate is the first princess to wear
\nit.<\/p>\n
Day two of the State Visit will include a gala banquet hosted by
\nthe Lord Mayor of London. The President of Germany will also lay a
\nwreath on the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II in St. George\u2019s Chapel in
\nWindsor.<\/p>\n
The State Visit is designed to cement relations between Germany
\nand the UK. The visit to Coventry will be a vital part of that.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source royalcentral.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Buckingham Palace has kept the details of the German State Visit under wraps until they happen, their guest has other ideas and is telling everyone just what he will get up to while in the UK. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier\u2019s office has announced his full itinerary for the three day State Visit and revealed that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2186539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2186538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Theres-an-unexpected-royal-taking-a-lead-role-in-the.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2186540,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186538\/revisions\/2186540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2186539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}