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warning from the Chancellery was clear: The Brandenburg Gate is the "most famous and history-rich location in Germany," a Chancellery source said on Monday. In the past, it has

only been used on very special occasions for addresses by politicians, and when, then only by elected American presidents. More clearly stated: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama

would be better off looking for another location in the German capital to hold a speech. But Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit appeared unimpressed by the warning from Chancellor Angela

Merkel's office and said during a press conference on Tuesday that he would be pleased if Obama were to address the public at the Brandenburg Gate. "We are not ruling anything

out," a spokesman for the Berlin city council told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "The Brandenburg Gate would certainly be a nice place." The local government also pointed out that the

decision over where Obama should make his appearance was in the hands of the city council of Berlin and not the chancellor's office or the federal government. In an interview with

SPIEGEL ONLINE, an Obama adviser confirmed that the Brandenburg Gate would be the Democratic candidate's top choice for the location of a speech on trans-Atlantic relations.  It would

be a "simply great" backdrop, the adviser said. After all, the source added, John F. Kennedy's famous appearance outside the Schöneberg Town Hall in 1963 was still very much

alive in people's memories. Some suspect Mayor Wowereit's remarks may be self-serving. Jürgen Trittin, deputy floor leader of The Green Party in the German parliament, predicted

that Obama would end up speaking at the Brandenburg Gate. "Do you think that Wowereit would miss the chance to appear alongside Barack Obama," he asked an interviewer on the German

news channel N24. "I believe Wowereit is thinking: 'He should appear, I will come into the picture and everything will be great'." In fact, that doesn't seem to be

too far off the mark. That's why the Chancellery expressly warned against making one of the country's main symbols of democracy available to anyone as a backdrop for a foreign

election campaign rally. In the meantime, though, the German government has already come up with a compromise. Obama, government officials have suggested, doesn't need to hold a talk --

he could simply walk through the gate. "Until now every American guest walked through the Brandenburg Gate," Karsten Voigt, the government's coordinator on German-American

cooperation said. "Journalists have always been present. And the guest has always had something to say."