IT was mostly sunny yesterday and the German capital came to almost a standstill with thousands of people lining up the streets to watch the BMW Berlin Marathon, a major running event held every September.
One of the World Marathon Majors, it is highly popular among elites and amateurs alike, as the mild temperatures and flat-course route with even running surface, make Berlin ideal for a first-timer.
Yesterday’s event attracted a host of seasoned and not-so-seasoned marathon runners, even from Malaysia. CIMB group chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz also flew in to run in the marathon.
The most marathon world records for men and women have also been set at the Berlin course, with the current world record of 2:02:57 set in 2014 by Dennis Kimetto from Kenya.
(For the record, Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia pulled away from Wilson Kipsang of Kenya late in the race to win the Berlin Marathon just outside the world record time yesterday.)
The marathon was first run in 1974 and the event was limited to West Berlin. With the unification of East and West Germany in 1990, runners get to experience Berlin in full.
There will be another form of the Malaysian “invasion” this week. The German government is preparing for a three-day visit of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who will be accompanied by his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and a delegation of government officials and businessmen, to beef up bilateral ties.
Najib, who will arrive today, is making his first official visit to Germany. It would be the first by a Malaysian leader in 11 years, according to the Malaysian ambassador to Germany Datuk Zulkifli Adnan.
Trade and investments matters will dominate talks between Najib and German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel on Tuesday.
Both leaders will also touch on ways to deal with international terrorism, Europe’s refugee issue and the conflict in Syria, as well as touch on Brexit and the South China Sea issue, he said.
“Chancellor Merkel wants to hear solutions how the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), whose members include Malaysia, can help tackle the Syrian refugee issue at source,” said Zulkifli, who was posted to Berlin last year.
Najib will inspect a guard-of-honour on arrival at the Federal Chancellery before attending a working lunch with Merkel. Both leaders will speak to the media after the one-hour-long lunch.
Other highlights of Najib’s three-day visit to Germany include meeting CEOs of top German companies for a dialogue session.
They include some household names such as BMW, Daimler, the Volkswagen group, Infineon, Osram and Bombardier Transportation.
German companies are also eyeing the Malaysia-Singapore high-speed rail project, a matter that may feature in Merkel’s talking points with Najib.
Najib will also meet Malaysians working or studying in Germany before visiting a Genting-owned shipyard in the northern city of Wismar.
He will also meet with the chief minister of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state. The northern German state, whose capital is Schwerin, was formed through the merger of the historic regions of Mecklenburg and Vorpommern after the Second World War, dissolved in 1952 and recreated at the time of the German reunification in 1990.
Genting Hong Kong has announced that the three shipyards in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Nordic Yards) that it bought in April for RM1 billion will be named “MV Werften”.
The acquisition will enable the company to build and repair its fleet of cruise ships. It intends to build three large cruise ships per year.
Among other enterprises, Genting Hong Kong operates Star Cruises, Dream Cruises and Crystal Cruises.
Meanwhile, Rosmah is scheduled to have a separate programme, where she is expected to visit the Friedrichshain school for autistic children on Tuesday.