The estimates for Obama’s Berlin speech ranged from the tens of thousands to 1,000,000. Today the candidate said he doubted he’d get a million and laughed at the idea of 500,000, but he did draw an impressive 200,000 - the biggest campaign event of his political career.

The enormous crowd, many waving American flags, stretched down the street leading from Victory Column in Tiergarten Park, all the way to the Brandenburg Gate that was once a point of entry between East and West Berlin.

The campaign was clear that this was not a political rally. As Obama described it, “The people in the crowd aren’t voters, so in that sense it’s not designed to get them to the polls…Hopefully it will be viewed as a substantive articulation of the relationship I’d like to see between the US and Europe.

..I’m hoping to communicate across the Atlantic about the relationship and how we can build on it.
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Previously, the candidate’s largest rally was in Portland, Oregon, where more than 70,000 showed up to hear the Illinois senator.

Talking to reporters on his campaign plane early this morning in Tel Aviv, Barack Obama asked reporters what they would do with their down time in Berlin tonight. “You guys got any big plans?” he asked before he said he’d love to “tour around a little bit.”

Rather, the candidate met with Chancellor Merkel, Foreign Minister Steinmeir, and the mayor of Berlin, who presented the presumptive Democratic nominee with a porcelain bear. Admiring his gift, Obama smiled and said, “That’s a beautiful, beautiful bear.”

Following his meetings, Obama dropped by the Ritz Carlton around the corner from his equally opulent hotel to work out. It seems that every time the candidate hits the streets in his conspicuous motorcade, hundreds flock to catch a glimpse along the city’s sidewalks. There was even a big crowd waiting for him at the Ritz - a stop announced to traveling press minutes before he left to work out.

An enormous crowd is expected at Obama’s only public speaking event abroad - to be held in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park tonight. Some foreign press are predicting between 100,000 and 1,000,000 will show up.

But when asked about it on his campaign plane this morning, Obama tried to downplay expectations. “I doubt we’re gonna have a million” show up. “Let’s tamp down expectations here. If we get a few tens of thousands…” he said. “We have really no idea what’s going to happen. Sort of a crap shoot,” Obama said candidly.

The candidate said he began working on the speech about two weeks ago, and said he was happy with the final product. “It should be good,” he told the city’s mayor.

When asked by reporters if he considered it to be a campaign speech, he deadpanned, “As opposed to?”

He then explained, “The people in the crowd aren’t voters, so in that sense its not designed to get them to the polls. You know its not a political rally. Hopefully it will be viewed as a substantive articulation of the relationship I’d  like to see between the US and Europe.”

Realizing people at home will be watching, Obama said, “Well I mean, I’m hoping to communicate across the Atlantic about the relationship and how we can build on it.”

Watch Obama discuss the speech here with reporters:

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When rumors swirled that Barack Obama would speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, during his European trip next week, it was reported that someone in the Bush Administration approached a German official at the G8 Summit in Japan to question the appropriateness of the location of the Democrat’s remarks.

The German press soon reported that German Chancellor Andrea Merkel deemed the location, one of the last remaining points connecting East and West Germany, off limits for an Obama stop – not because of Bush’s concerns, but as a matter of fairness. If Obama spoke there, then any candidate running for any office, in any country around the world may want to speak there.

Today the candidate told reporters aboard his campaign plane that his campaign has been “trying to coordinate with folks on the ground in terms of finding an appropriate site, but we didn’t have a particular site in mind.”

Obama said getting his message out is more important than the location of the speech. “Our goal is just for me to lay out how I think about the next administration’s role and rebuilding our transatlantic alliance and so I don’t want to the negative to be a distraction. What I want to do is just work with folks on the ground to find some place that’s appropriate,” Obama said.

Earlier this week at a town hall in Virginia, Obama gave a sneak preview of that message. “Although our military power is unmatched, the real challenges, the real threats, that face not just our security but world security today can’t be solved just by one country because they span the globe…We’ve got to worry about and spend time thinking about building alliances and restoring relationships with countries all around the world in order to deal with our national security,” he said, prefacing that he didn’t want to “spill” too much about the top secret trip.

The campaign has not made announcements on the specifics of Obama’s visit to Germany.