Olaf Scholz would probably like to beam himself to the White House to Joe Biden this week. Connoisseurs of the science fiction series "Star Trek" know that this refers to the use of a teleporter, which ensures that a person disappears in one place and reappears after a few seconds in another. Unfortunately, this technology of the future is so immature that the chancellor or anyone else cannot use it. Travelling incognito is also not possible for the head of government. That's why he's flying from Berlin to Washington this Thursday by government plane. However, in an unusual format, without a large delegation and without journalists. Because Scholz wants to talk to the American President in detail in private.

Markus Wehner

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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Both had discussed this for some time, it is said in the Chancellery. And because the American election campaign is gaining momentum as the year progresses, both have opted for the date at the beginning of March. The White House has offered the chancellor a conversation of at least two hours, and he wants to use this time completely on Friday afternoon, without having to schedule a subsequent press conference. Especially since he is not eager to publicly disclose the contents of the conversation. Only a CNN interview is still confirmed.

Scholz appreciates one-on-one talks in which not even the government spokesmen or foreign policy advisers are present. When he made his inaugural visit to Biden in February last year, the president and chancellor spoke for an hour in pair. The subsequent half-hour meeting of the two delegations in a confined space, however, was so tough that the German delegation was extremely concerned about the success of the visit. But Scholz is said to have said that he had experienced with Biden one of the best political talks he had ever had.

Biden develops his own policy

This conversation laid the foundation for the relationship between President and Chancellor. Scholz experiences Biden as a politician who looks at the world with a view shaped by his own experience. And who develops his own policy, does not necessarily do what his advisors recommend to him. Who listens to the opinions of others, but decides for himself. Scholz admires that, and that in turn has to do with the fact that the chancellor also sees himself that way.

The two are also close in their political thinking. When Scholz, then mayor of Hamburg, published his book "Hoffnungsland" in 2017, he quoted a speech Biden had given at the World Economic Forum in Davos a year earlier over an entire page: Biden talked about globalization and how it had given many people the feeling of alienation. However, people must have the chance to "lead a decent life and the respect and dignity that a good job brings". If the people who worked hard no longer had this chance, then fear, frustration and anger would spread. This is the breeding ground for xenophobic, nationalist and isolationist views. "And that threatens social cohesion in all of our countries," Biden said. The speech sounds like a blueprint for the respect election campaign that Scholz led in 2021.