Angela Merkel

by Stefan Kornelius

  Like the United Kingdom, France viewed the colossus now taking shape in Central Europe with suspicion. The French President had visited East Berlin in December, paying court to the last government of the East German Social Unity Party under Egon Krenz – an act regarded as outrageous, not just by West German politicians. As much as Mitterrand might claim it was the result of an invitation from Krenz's predecessor Erich Honecker, it was still a spurious reason.

  Merkel disliked Mitterrand because of this earlier flying visit to the GDR, but nonetheless – like all visitors to the Élysée – she was impressed by its atmosphere and the President's quiet, superior way of speaking. Mitterrand and the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, were intent on trying to limit the power of Germany. Kohl, meanwhile, wanted the new Germany to be firmly anchored in the Western alliances, in the European Union and NATO. Merkel supported him strongly in this – not that he noticed, or that he would have seen it as relevant. However, as de Maizière remembered later, Merkel made no secret of her convictions to him.

  The last GDR government wasn't a particularly professional outfit. Those serving in it had had little experience or few opportunities to become involved in politics. People wanted a single currency for both parts of Germany, and they wanted reunification. Yet in de Maizière's cabinet – a grand coalition consisting of a diverse mixture of civil-rights campaigners, members of the old regime, new politicians and people involved with the Church – grew a sudden determination to create a new political system. Its partner in the coalition, the SPD, was discussing alternative foreign-affairs strategies for what was being planned in Bonn for a united Germany. The main consideration was whether the new Germany should be part of NATO, or whether the end of the Warsaw Pact meant that there was a need for a new security policy in Europe.

  The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) had a better image in the GDR than NATO – so why not try a new form of alliance based on that? Such questions of alliance played a major part in another, central decision: what should be the legal basis of reunification? If the East were not simply to adopt the constitution and the great sweep of West German treaties, Germany's position in international law would have had to be redefined – every international treaty would have had to be renegotiated, with all the unpredictable consequences that such a complex and expensive procedure would entail.

  Merkel proved to be very firm in all these discussions. She had made up her mind, as de Maizière later acknowledged. The deputy spokeswoman also had a chance to contribute directly to the discussions: on her travels with the Prime Minister to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, to Paris and London, and finally in Moscow at the meeting of the foreign ministers of what was known as the Two-Plus-Four Group, in which the four victorious powers of the Second World War and the two Germanys gathered to discuss the consequences of reunification for foreign policy, questions of sovereignty, elections within the alliance, the stationing of troops and national borders. This was where she gained her first experience of international forums, with round after round of delegations, protocol and all the awkward questions that arise whenever sovereign states deal with each other. Voluble outbursts were inappropriate here; diplomacy demanded tact and sensitivity.

  After the SPD left the coalition in August, de Maizière had taken on the role of Foreign Minister as well, and was thus representing the GDR at the last meeting of the Two-Plus-Four Group.

  Angela Merkel went to Moscow with this party on 12th September 1990. De Maizière was aware of his colleague's linguistic skills and dispatched her into the streets with the idea – very characteristic of his approach – of getting her to sound out the ordinary people. Merkel picked up a few opinions on the underground – Russia was betraying its own interests, Gorbachev was selling out the Motherland – and took them back to the delegation. Her main task, however, was to look after the small group of journalists from East Berlin. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who had come from Bonn, had a much larger retinue with him. Merkel remembered, with some surprise, how the heavyweight Genscher managed to cast a spell over the journalists with his quiet voice and dislike of all fixed arrangements. Whereas she, having organized a dinner in a Georgian restaurant, and with far more details and anecdotes about the negotiations at her fingertips, was considered less important by the media – in fact she was barely noticed. It was a lesson in how to punch above your weight in politics.

  What the journalists did remember was that Merkel was wearing a new coat and shoes – later, de Maizière said she had been sent out to buy new clothes before the trip. The subject would haunt Merkel for quite some time. Her appearance, hairstyle, shoes, sloppy outfits – the young politician had to learn quickly what the public values besides sharp analysis and knowledge of detail. Merkel had particular difficulties with this aspect of the job, also because she suffered from it more than most female politicians. Her instincts must have been telling her: I'll show you that clothes and looks are of secondary importance – why don't you concentrate on what matters?

  But it would take another ten years before public criticism of her style died down. Today she appears quite comfortable about the sartorial side of her job. In the morning she uses the time spent with her stylist, Petra Keller, to read newspapers, press releases and files. Her typical pose in a trouser suit with hands folded in front of her has become an iconic image. There was much applause and laughter when, on her official visit to the United States in 2011, Merkel presented a framed front page of the Frankfurter Allgemeine to another famous wearer of trouser suits. The photograph showed no faces, only the stomachs and hips of two women in trouser suits holding hands. Hillary Clinton was visibly amused.

  In her early years in politics Merkel had struggled to come to terms with her public role. Even as press spokeswoman she preferred to let her boss Matthias Gehler take the stage. Later, at the beginning of her time in Bonn, she was regarded as being stubborn as well as shy in public. Appearances at election meetings were torture for her. Even today Merkel hates being given ovations at party conferences. She stands on the stage, knowing that she will have to stand there for minutes on end, because, as always, people are counting the minutes and it is expected that she will be greeted with record applause – but she would rather not be there at all. Large crowds are not her style.

  So it is not surprising that Merkel developed qualities she had already shown as a child – such as mistrust and discretion. If anything, her experiences in life have tended to make her even more shy in public. It hurt her feelings when the West German media and opponents in her own party claimed that she had a murky past in the GDR: during her time at the Academy she had been involved with the Free German Youth organization. Merkel's version was that her role had simply consisted in promoting cultural events, getting theatre tickets and organizing trips. Her critics accused her of agitation and propaganda on behalf of the system. This was contradicted by witnesses, who provided solid evidence to support their accounts and argued that the special status of the Academy as an independent body proved that Merkel had always maintained a great distance from the system.

  Merkel faced similar questions at the beginning of her political career, when she was Minister for Women and Youth. At an event in Schwerin she once talked jokingly about her ML thesis for her doctorate. ML stood for Marxism-Leninism, which was a mandatory subject in addition to the requirements of her physics studies. Making a funny anecdote out of it, she said that the essay had focused on the relationship of workers and farmers in a country known as the Workers’ and Farmers’ State, and wasn't given high marks because she had attached too much importance to the farmers. The journalists interpreted this quite differently, however, and trawled the university archives in search of a scoop – Merkel's thesis on Marxism-Leninism. But it had disappeared and has never been found.

  Merkel was annoyed, thinking she was going to be burdened with a now toxic ideology. In the event there was a great deal of conspiratorial whispering. No one seemed interested i
n the fact that every student dutifully handed in his or her ML thesis and just secretly hoped for the best. There was a similar outcry when it was claimed that Merkel had studied in Moscow. It isn't true, but the rumour persists. All this has served to reinforce Angela Merkel's mistrust and discretion. She clams up, accusing her critics of muckraking and sensationalism. And it has to be said that they have never taken the trouble to consider the living conditions in the GDR at the time.

  Even now there are problems of communication. In the debate over childcare allowances, Merkel pointed out that all women in the GDR had worked for a living. There was an outcry among female members of the West German CDU. Was the Chancellor criticizing their lifestyle and idealizing conditions in the former East? No, said Merkel, she hadn't meant to sound critical: in fact her mother had never had a job apart from bringing up the children, but only because she wasn't allowed to. Yet the episode demonstrated once again how little readiness there is in the old camps of East and West to confront the realities of life on the other side. But Angela Merkel had decided early on that she had no wish to contribute to that quarrel. She was weary of conflicts, so she kept quiet. Now, at the end of her second term as Chancellor, her attitude has changed slightly – presumably because after eight years in office she has softened her stance and is already thinking about her legacy.

  In the period immediately after the fall of the Wall, Merkel described herself as being wary of conflict, or at least hating the vicious personal attacks that are often a feature of politics. “The only things that worry me are unjust and intentionally false claims. I loathe personal quarrels,” she admitted in conversation with Herlinde Koelbl. Serious discussion and debate were more her thing. “I seek cooperation rather than confrontation in politics,” she said, and then went on to provide an accurate self-assessment: “I find the tendency that certain male politicians have constantly to assert themselves rather unpleasant. Many people puff themselves up and try to drown out each other's voices in order to impose themselves. When that happens I feel almost physically oppressed and would prefer not to be there.” Merkel studies her political opponents very closely, and while she has certainly not been a paragon of virtue over the years, at the time she had this to say: “When that happens it ceases to be an objective debate, it just becomes a question of who can take the wind out of the other person's sails. That isn't the way I work.”

  Twenty-two years later, anyone who wants to study Merkel's methods needs to look at what emerged at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Angela Merkel has remained true to herself. Pastor Erhart Neubert, who was one of the founders of Democratic Awakening and knows all of Merkel's different facets, spoke of an “aesthetic of the honourable and good”. This is somewhat sentimental, but even if many of the edges have been smoothed off Merkel the post-reunification politician, she has retained her image of the hard-working public servant, the dutiful pastor's daughter who wants to get to the heart of everything without any unpleasant ulterior motives. Of course, what becomes of these good intentions in the reality of politics may be quite a different matter. Her antagonists in the CDU and the opposition parties, in the EU or among her coalition partners, have their own opinions of the Chancellor's character and methods.

  Order, structure, the ability to plan ahead – Merkel has brought many of her qualities from thirty-five years in the GDR into her new life. She has said that even as a child she had to think ahead, because problems with her physical growth and development meant that she had difficulty running and climbing stairs. According to her she was “clumsy in her movements”, with the result that every unnecessary walk had to be avoided and each step planned in advance. Two months before Christmas she would already be thinking of presents. “I always wanted to know what I was getting, even if it spoilt the surprise. It mattered more to give structure to my life and avoid chaos.”

  Merkel has also retained her Prussian sense of duty and Protestant work ethic. As a child she soon grew accustomed to being industrious and proper, working harder than other people. The Lutheran passion for self-improvement, for doing things better, knowing things better, getting ahead, has never left her. That is also why she absolutely refuses to see herself as predestined for any role. Obviously she followed various people's examples, wanted to be like other girls – imagined being an actor, a dancer, an ice skater. But these were childhood dreams, fantasies about roles for which Angela Kasner wasn't suited. Years later, when asked if she had a particular role model, she cited the physicist Marie Curie, who grew up in Russian-occupied Poland in the 19th century, studied in Paris and determinedly made her mark as a female scientist. That impressed Merkel.

  If asked today whether she has any political role models, she always answers, “None.” She has coolly dismissed any comparison with Margaret Thatcher, and no one asks her any more (except in English-speaking countries, where memories of the Iron Lady have persisted for slightly longer). Ronald Reagan was something of a hero in her youth, but Merkel no longer mentions him. Not only has she discovered that the former US President has lost much of his positive image in the West, but it would probably also be against her principles to stand in the shadow of other politicians and compare her image with theirs.

  There are thirty-five years of the GDR in Angela Merkel. That is a long time, and it has left its mark. The Merkel mystery is rooted in the failed East German republic. This explains the fascination for her as a person, especially in her second term as Chancellor and particularly abroad. Merkel doesn't open up to many people, because they are unable to understand her previous life, her completely alien other world. The influence of the GDR hovers around her like a secret that won't reveal itself. And how could it be otherwise for those who didn't share the same experience? As a result, public interest in Merkel has continued far longer than for politicians with similar careers but whose lives can be more easily imagined. She knows this, and handles the mystery with particular care.

  In Search of New Frontiers

  Breaking into Politics

  In the last months of the GDR, Helmut Kohl was constantly in touch with Lothar de Maizière and his government. Yet Merkel had never met the West German Chancellor, only catching a glimpse of him in the summer of 1990. She wanted to change that now. Their first meeting was arranged during the CDU unification conference, a few days before the official celebrations at the beginning of October 1990. Kohl was sitting in the Hamburg Rathauskeller, where the CDU used to hold evening press briefings during its party conferences in the city. On these occasions the leader of the party held court, invited selected journalists to his table and urged them to try his favourite local dish of Labskaus, a casserole of beef, beetroot and potatoes with fried eggs. Merkel asked a mutual acquaintance from Dresden to introduce her – she was obviously keen to get to know him.

  Kohl took her to another room so they could talk, and Merkel later described her excitement at this meeting. “I thought to myself, now you're going to meet the Chancellor of the Federal Republic and he'll ask you something really difficult. And then I got a very simple question.” Merkel had clearly not expected Kohl to be so chatty, and had imagined high-level politics as something more profound and difficult. But the Chancellor must have been impressed as well: he asked Merkel to come and talk to him again in Bonn that November. He probably already had his eye on her as a minister in the first all-German cabinet.

  After the general election in December, Merkel was offered the post of Minister for Women and Youth. Naturally she accepted, although a few days earlier she had admitted that she knew nothing about these subjects. But she was a woman, she came from the East and was a Protestant – so Kohl, the champion of proportional representation, chose her. She was sworn in to the Bundestag on 18th January 1991. After this meteoric ascent to the senior ranks of German politics, it was almost natural for her to rise in the hierarchy of the CDU as well. When her patron of many years, Lothar de Maizière, resigned from all his party functions in September 1991 – he was worn down by all
the speculation over his involvement with the Stasi in the GDR – Merkel took on the role of deputy party leader in December. Along with Günther Krause, she now represented the East at the head of the CDU.

  The Ministry for Women and Youth had evolved out of the former Federal German Ministry for Women, the Family, Youth and Health. Kohl had divided it into three. Merkel took on one of these units, and soon showed how she planned to go about leading: by appointing a team of loyal colleagues.

  No one, however, was to become more important than the young woman who entered Merkel's life in 1992. At the time Merkel was in hospital, after breaking her leg while visiting a bookshop. She was looking for an aide to help her as she mastered her role in the party, and had been allocated, as deputy chairman, a parttime assistant. While she was in hospital, Merkel had a visitor – Christian Wulff, a politician from Lower Saxony. Wulff, whom she later appointed President of the Federal Republic, had just finished his time as a city councillor in Osnabrück, and was about to launch his career in regional politics. He had a good network in the Lower Saxony CDU, and wanted to introduce his hospitalized friend to a talented young woman whom he knew from the CDU youth organization, the Youth Union, in Osnabrück, and who would be suitable for the job: Beate Baumann.