Obama in Tiergarten

Headline from Time:  Berlin awaits the 'Next JFK'.

Barack Obama continues his overseas tour with a speech tonight in Berlin's Tiergarten.  The Obama campaign has worked overtime to ensure the crowd will be large, going so far as to blanket Berlin with flyers promoting the event.

Tiergarten is the German word for animal garden and at one time was a private hunting preserve for German nobility.  Now, "the Tiergarten district is the Federal Republic of Germany's political heart and soul. The Bundestag (German parliament) convenes just a hop, skip and a jump from the Brandenburg Gate, he gateway to Mitte, in the revamped Reichstag building."  The park links the east and west city centers.

The image of a huge crowd of Germans cheering for a political speech makes me just a bit uneasy.