All the memorials on the National Mall were erected for a reason and the German-American Friendship Garden is no different. Nothing is here by accident.
In 1988 at the end of his presidency, Ronald Reagan and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl dedicate the garden. The German American relationship went through a lot during Reagan’s time in the White House. Germans opposed, but nonetheless accepted, deployment of Pershing II missiles. Then there was the time Kohl roped Reagan into laying a wreath at a cemetery where SS soldiers were buried. That didn’t play well here. But Reagan wanted to show a strong German American alliance to the Soviet Union, and a garden across the street from the White House was one way to do that. A year later, the Berlin Wall comes down and two years after that East and West Germany reunite.