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The World from Berlin

Obama Has 'Reactivated American Magnetism'

President Barack Obama gets to work on Wednesday to tackle the multitude of challenges facing the United States. While Europeans are enthusiastic about the new president, this may not translate into sending more troops to Afghanistan. German newspapers nevertheless hope that Obama marks the dawn of a new age.

President Barack Obama will face the task of governing Wednesday after a day of celebrations to mark his historic rise to power. He'll meet with his economic team and military commanders to address the twin crises of the faltering US economy and the drawn-out war in Iraq.

While most Americans will focus their hopes on Obama's efforts to bolster the economy, particularly a massive stimulus package worth an estimated $825 billion, on the other side of the Atlantic Europeans are hoping for better global relations. Despite the overwhelming enthusiasm for Obama, though, most European leaders are unlikely to fall in with his much-anticipated request for more help with the war in Afghanistan.

Obama says he wants to send more troops into Afghanistan to stem the tide of the insurgency there. During speech in Berlin last July he made it clear that he expected Europe to step up to this task. A concrete request is likely to come sooner rather than later. At the upcoming NATO summit in March his new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is expected to ask her European allies how many additional soldiers they might contribute.

On Tuesday Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated that Berlin would not contemplate any immediate changes to its deployment in Afghanistan. "We took our decisions based on our capabilities, our skills -- not on who is president," she said. And on Wednesday France's Defense Minister Herve Morin told Europe 1 Radio that Paris would reject any immediate request for reinforcements because it had already sent enough troops.

Meanwhile on Wednesday German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the inauguration of President Obama represented a new chance for the Middle East peace process. "More partners, less enemies -- that is the vision that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton want to work for," he told Germany's Bild newspaper. "I believe we can expect a very active diplomacy -- even in the Middle East."

Steinmeier said that Obama had an "inspirational program for an economic new beginning, an active climate policy and for a society that does not leave the weak behind." He and Chancellor Merkel will be rivals in a contest for the chancellorship later this year.

On Wednesday, German newspapers heap praise on the new president and hope that good relations with the rest of the world will now be restored.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"'Responsibility' is the key word in Obama's thought. … With his call for responsibility he is giving the burden of office back to the voters, he is sharing the burden of the tasks with them and he is giving American politics a new direction."

"Responsibility stands for an attitude of service. This is a person who is at the service of his people, even though he leads them and is admired by them. Obama's show of strength on Jan. 20 in Washington was when millions allowed themselves to be called to duty. Someone who inspires so much admiration and loyalty makes things difficult for America's enemies. The image of the US as bogey man, passionately stoked by many and brutally exploited by terrorists, will not work so easily anymore."

"America's weaknesses were not only George W. Bush and his clique, but rather the intellectual position that spread throughout the country: an imperialist megalomania, a power trip, that didn't leave room for friends. It led the country to lose its attraction for the first time. Obama's greatest achievement was that he has reactivated this magnetism. Suddenly people across the world are looking benevolently at America, at this positive and dynamic society that allows so much freedom."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"The fact that America has for the first time elected an African American to the country's highest office is proof of the ability of the country to reinvent itself, to accept its history -- which is also one of racial discrimination -- and at the same time to leave it behind. Obama invokes Abraham Lincoln, one of the great figures in American hagiography, the man who abolished slavery and tried to reunite Americans after a devastating civil war. "

"However, the tone of his speech was sober: He listed the challenges that face his country -- both internally and externally -- and he made no secret of how big they are and how difficult it will be to overcome them. This sobriety … is certainly aimed at dampening the messianic hopes that have been raised by his inauguration. They also mark a break from the ideological polarization that defined much of the Bush presidency. Obama called on all Americans, regardless of party or race, to work together for the renewal."

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"The hopes now placed on his shoulders are immense. It looks as if he knows how to temper these hopes … without losing face. In America, a land full of pathos, it won't be held against him if he turns out not to be a true miracle healer. The disappointment will in all likelihood be felt abroad, particularly in Europe. That is because Barack Obama will quickly make it clear that he is above all the president of the United States and will represent that country's interests in a way that may be thoroughly uncomfortable for Europe."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"Obama made a big promise: The dawn of a new age and the rededication of the US by one who embodies the noble side of the American idea -- in contrast to those who governed until Tuesday. Seldom has an inauguration speech been such an unforgiving reckoning with a previous administration."

"Obama's speech recalled that of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, when he spoke about the truth about the economic crisis, about challenges and wars. … It is this ability to speak to both history and to his audience of the day that Obama has mastered like no other politician. It was a skill that played no small part in bringing him to the White House. However, the inspiration that comes from his own historic mission will not last forever."

Siobhán Dowling, 12:50 p.m. CET