NYC youth go to Germany on chancellor's invitation

BADEN-BADEN, Germany -- Tired but excited, 25 juniors from high schools near the site of the World Trade Center in New York arrived Saturday in Germany for a weeklong visit at the invitation of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Stepping off a gray German air force jet that flew them to Stuttgart, the students were greeted by officials and a throng of German journalists. Bandar Albuliwi, a 17-year-old from Murry Bergtraum High School, aimed his camera at the group pursuing a shot of him.

"I'm hoping this is going to change the rest of my life -- all the interaction we're going to have with the different people and culture," Albuliwi said.

The group is the vanguard of 1,000 teen-agers who will cross the Atlantic over the next 18 months to meet with German youth, learn about local history, and talk about the terrorist attacks that disrupted their lives and those of others around the world.

But their first meeting in the elegant spa town of Baden-Baden was to be with their former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, here to receive the annual German Media Prize on Saturday for his energy and courage after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The students' visit is being funded by German industrial companies, led by automaker DaimlerChrysler. After Baden-Baden they are to travel to Berlin, where they will meet with Schroeder Tuesday, then to Munich, Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Cologne.

Schroeder declared "unrestricted solidarity" with the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks. In a message to the students, he said their trip is "an extension of that solidarity, to promote tolerance and understanding."