The people of Düsseldorf were able to observe Prince Harry up close for a week. Over sausage and Altbier, he and his wife Meghan made it clear that they approach many things differently than the Royal Family.
Harry still looks completely in love when he holds Meghan’s hand. You have been able to see this for yourself in Düsseldorf over the past few days. In the midst of people and in front of countless cameras, H & M celebrated moments of togetherness with great regularity. For example when she put her hand on his shoulder and whispered something or when he leaned towards her and then the next moment she laughed and looked at him enthusiastically.
The two were together again at the farewell ceremony for the Invictus Games on Saturday evening in the Merkur Spiel-Arena, although Meghan preferred to leave the stage to Harry alone. This may have played a role in the accusation recently made in the British press that she was trying to steal the show at every opportunity.
Harry, once Second Lieutenant Wales in the Blues and Royals, the second oldest regiment in the British Army, mastered his task brilliantly. Not only did he speak another sentence in German (“Many thanks to everyone in Düsseldorf and many thanks to Germany for these fantastic games”), he also told a touching story.
It was about a Canadian soldier who played the bagpipes in Afghanistan whenever a comrade was killed and was flown home in a coffin. He did this 63 times. After his deployment to the front, it took him four years before he could even touch the instrument again. But now, in Düsseldorf, he was able to play something for the prince – who loves the melancholic sounds of the bagpipes. Harry fought back tears as he said this.
Harry and Meghan: A Golden Couple
The prince has now spent a good week on the Rhine, Meghan arrived from California four days after him. Anyone who followed the two of them closely would have an idea of why they didn’t want to fit in with the British royal family: This golden couple is simply not cut out to play second fiddle. It surrounds itself with its own court of PR consultants, assistants and security guards. Wherever Harry and Meghan materialize, they are the central star of their own small solar system.
Harry’s family is actually called Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, “Windsor” is a kind of pseudonym, invented during the First World War to camouflage his German roots. One would have liked to know what effect his ancestral homeland had on Harry, but he gave no press conferences or interviews. The high aristocrat only answered questions once, in ZDF’s “Current Sports Studio”, but only about the Invictus Games. That’s not enough for a new episode of “The Crown.”
But Harry has big reservations about the media. In his memoirs “Reserve,” he describes the phalanx of photographers and reporters that have followed him his entire life as “the wall.” The “rhythmic clicking” of the cameras, the “storm of clicks” – he hates it. But he undoubtedly also knows how to use it for his own purposes.
As we know, Harry got island fever a few years ago and turned his back on the intriguers at court. No matter how you feel about him, you have to recognize that the rebel prince is very good at establishing an emotional connection with people he doesn’t know in a very short time.
In Düsseldorf he continually placed medals around the necks of the war-disabled athletes, hugged participants, chatted and smiled. In “Reserve” he complains that the older generation of his royal family clan in particular maintains “a strict ban on any physical contact.” “No hugs, no kisses, no caresses.” He has demonstratively said goodbye to this. And Meghan had nothing diva-like in Düsseldorf, but was right in the middle of it all.
A visit to a tavern should not be missed on your trip to Germany
The image that will probably be remembered most from Harry and Meghan’s Rhenish week is that of their visit to an old town brewery on the eve of his 39th birthday. Not a luxury restaurant, but a traditional inn. There they ate – without prior reservation – in a clearly visible area. He washed down “bratwurst sausage and Wiener Schnitzel” with six Altbiers, while Meghan (42) only had one beer, reported the high-circulation London “Daily Mail”.
You can see this as an anti-establishment program and also suspect that there is a message in it. In his memoirs, Harry writes that, in addition to her nose and blue eyes, he also inherited “her dislike of blaséness, falsehood and everything noble” from his mother, Princess Diana. He made this clear again during his stay in Germany. The Times headlined: “Prince Harry celebrates his birthday in a German pub as the palace shrouds itself in silence.” The Royal Family consistently ignored the birthday on social networks.
Speaking of Düsseldorf: Did hosting the games benefit the city? There will probably be a certain advertising effect, after all the complicated name of the NRW state capital – mostly without Ü points – was in the media around the world in the past week, from the “New York Post” to the “Hindustan Times”. “I’m from Düsseldorf,” Harry said – you have to be able to use that somehow. Maybe Harry and Meghan can even be carnivalized: a self-adhesive red beard for him, a dark wig for her – that could be the costume idea for the coming season.