Are Germany and the US still the best of friends? By Jenny Hill

BBC Berlin correspondent Published duration 28 June 2015

image copyright AFP image caption President Obama visited Berlin in 2013

When Barack Obama visited Berlin two years ago, he charmed a city.

Thousands of people cheered in the summer sunshine as he stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate and took off his jacket, telling the crowd he could be informal as he was among friends.

Obvious comparisons were drawn. Not far away, 50 years - almost to the day - earlier, President John F Kennedy had delivered his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech to a delighted crowd.

As the news magazine Spiegel wrote after Mr Obama's visit, the US president "left the city having achieved his primary goal - that of putting a feel-good coat of paint on a transatlantic relationship that had recently begun to show its age".

For years, Germans have rated President Obama highly.

In fact, according to Pew research, which surveys scores of countries, German confidence in Mr Obama was the highest in the world. Until last year, when that confidence slumped to well below that displayed by people in France or the UK.

Kennedy's Berlin speech:

image copyright AP image caption President Kennedy's legendary speech in Berlin

President Kennedy told a huge crowd that West Berlin was a symbol of freedom in a world threatened by the Cold War.

"Two thousand years ago," he said, "the proudest boast in the world was, 'Civis Romanus sum.'

"Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'

"Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect," he added. "But we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in."

His speech was punctuated throughout by rapturous cheers of approval.

He ended on the theme he had begun with: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'"

And in the past few years the number of Germans who viewed America favourably fell too. Just 51% now hold a good opinion of the US.

"The honeymoon's over," ran one newspaper headline. So what happened?

Complicated relationship

Germany's relationship with the US is best described as complicated.

Arguably, it is a cultural thing. Germans do not, for example, share America's more hawkish approach to foreign policy.

There is mistrust and concern over US use of drones, and the Iraq War, which Germany strongly opposed, still casts a shadow.

And that's before anyone has mentioned claims of spying.

But while geopolitical threats such as Russian action in Ukraine - divide opinion between the two countries, they also unite them.

For Germany, the US is a powerful ally - but Angela Merkel is widely seen by the West as chief communicator with President Vladimir Putin.

image copyright EPA

And, as Europe's largest economy and, by default, arguably Europe's lead nation, it is vital to the US too, which makes the relationship between the countries' leaders so interesting.

When Mr Obama and Mrs Merkel were pictured recently, high in the Bavarian mountains at the G7 summit, the image ignited worldwide speculation.

Was she telling him off? Trying to impress him? Or were they just sharing a joke?

It is, after all, a relationship that has endured some storms.

Phone tapping

Mrs Merkel was famously furious when it emerged in 2013 that the US secret services may have tapped her mobile telephone

"Friends spying on one another," she said, "that's just not on."

The US public agreed. And claims about the mass surveillance of German citizens further soured transatlantic relations. Mrs Merkel sought a "no-spy" agreement, which never transpired.

Has the Obama-Merkel relationship recovered?

"They still respect one another and hold each other in high regard," says Peter Beyer, a conservative MP and "special rapporteur" on transatlantic relations for the German government.

He points out that Mrs Merkel stayed at the "guest house" next to the White House during a recent trip to Washington - not an honour afforded to every visiting head of government.

You get the sense too that the power balance has shifted, that President Obama, who is weakened domestically, benefits from an apparently strong relationship with Europe's most powerful politician.

"They're in close communication," says Mr Beyer.