German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender are wrapping up their three-day state visit to Spain on Friday with a trip to the Basque Country.
They plan to visit the town of Guernica, officially Gernika in Basque, to commemorate the victims of the German bombing raid on April 26, 1937.
During the Spanish Civil War, aircraft from the German Condor Legion bombed the small town, destroying three quarters of it.
Estimates of the number of fatalities vary between 300 and 1,500. It was the first massive bombing raid on the defenceless civilian population of an entire town in European history.
The devastation prompted Pablo Picasso to create his famous painting "Guernica," which Steinmeier and his wife viewed on their first day in Madrid.
During his speech at the state banquet on Wednesday evening, Steinmeier acknowledged that "Germans committed terrible crimes in Guernica."
The attack on the town was a reminder to stand up for peace, freedom and respect for human rights. "Remembrance and reconciliation pave the path to the future," he said.
Spain's King Felipe VI spoke of a "gesture of great symbolic significance and reconciliation." Felipe intends to accompany Steinmeier to the Basque Country.
According to Steinmeier's office, the trip is intended to reflect the good bilateral relations between the two countries and aims to demonstrate close solidarity between the pro-European partners.
Steinmeier is the first German president to make a state visit to Spain since Johannes Rau in 2002.