Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote a memoir and titled it “Freedom.” Image: trapezoid
The former prime minister recounted her memories. Merkel was at peace, but she also admitted her mistakes. Attempting review.
Hansjörg Friedrich Müller, Berlin/ch media
First a confession: I've only read excerpts from the book I wrote about here. This may certainly apply to many critics, because when the publisher emailed the 700-page proofs of Angela Merkel's autobiography “Freedom” on Tuesday morning, the work was already in bookstores.
Much can be said for the former German chancellor who has remained true to himself as a writer: anyone hoping for gossip from the powerful world may be disappointed. Bild tried to make tabloid reporting out of available material, compiling what it apparently thought were the best anecdotes.
Putin, Bush and Obama appear
Anyone wondering, for example, why Merkel opened her arms in front of Barack Obama at the 2015 G7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria, will find the reason: The bench Obama sat on was designed to be reminiscent of the oversized beach chair eight years earlier. , Merkel attended the G8 summit in Heiligendamm, Mecklenburg, along with Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush. But the former chancellor now says that because she didn't have the English word for “beach chair” in mind, she gestured to indicate the size of the object. That's it.
Merkel reportedly wrote her own memoirs – and people believe her: decisions are “implemented”, measures are “carried out”, processes “happen”. Merkel and her co-author Beate Bauman often use the language of world management, making it hardly enjoyable reading.
Events are treated in a chronicle manner; at times, the reader is led to believe that he has a copy of the minutes in his hand, claiming that it is complete, especially when it becomes particularly uninteresting. Der Spiegel, which still favors the politician, also wants to see the positive side: boredom reveals Merkel's seriousness.
The former prime minister stressed that she did not write down her memories to defend herself. It’s no coincidence that many Germans now feel that Merkel owes them an explanation: Whether it’s collapsed bridges, the ailing Bundeswehr, refugee integration problems or naive Russia policies: After 16 years in office, Germany is Very good, no one can say that.
The Christian Democrat's complacency in her memoir is almost provocative. If she does admit she was wrong, she won't alienate her remaining supporters: She was wrong in 2003 when she publicly supported Bush's Iraq war. Now, she has discovered the fact that in 2008, she once touted the virtues of “Swabian housewives”, which are “easy and cheap.”
Still a pragmatist on power
Merkel remains convinced that her immigration policy is the right one, or, as she puts it, that there is “no alternative.” She doesn’t think she made the AfD strong. Instead, it puts the onus on other parties: If they think they can “keep the AfD small by constantly talking about its issues, they will fail.”
This could be interpreted as a criticism of her more conservative successor at the top of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, and a call to loosen the debt brake. Even though Merkel is a Christian Democrat, she has stuck to her line of pleasing the red and green parties in particular.
Why did she actually join the CDU after the fall of East Germany in 1990? She also commented on this, without revealing anything: “Let at least part of our democratic awakening project – in a literal sense – continue to exist.” But is it also possible for the SPD, FDP or Greens to do this? What about a little? The former prime minister did not reflect on this, just as she did not reflect on her concept of freedom, her memory contained in the title. Even in retirement, Angela Merkel remains a power pragmatist.
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