Freedom summary

Angela was a dedicated student at Karl Marx University in Leipzig. But that doesn’t mean she was a boring nerd. Along with her classmates, she organized parties – where she worked as a barmaid – and went on adventurous trips to pretty much every country that was open to them with their GDR passports.

Although she’d thought she could avoid ideology by studying physics, that wasn’t exactly the case. A 14-day military service course was compulsory before starting her studies, and she couldn’t opt out of sports or lectures on Marxism-Leninism either. Angela despised the GDR for its injustice, narrow-mindedness, and attempts to intimidate her. But she still managed to maintain an inner lightheartedness and ease during her student years. 

When the GDR dissolved and the Berlin Wall fell, Angela Merkel felt one thing above all: relief. At last, the Stasi, the Volkspolizei, and the hated party no longer had any power over her. Shortly afterward, a new feeling was added: freedom. Suddenly, she could do and say anything she felt like. The role of the politically dubious outsider was a thing of the past – if she wanted to, she could now even help shape the future in her new country. 

And she did want to.

From that point on, things moved quickly. In the 1990 Bundestag election, not only did Angela Merkel win a direct mandate, but the CDU also secured the majority. Shortly after, Günther Krause, then Federal Minister for Special Affairs, approached Merkel and said, “I heard from Kohl that you’re going to be a minister. Something to do with women. In any case, you should get yourself something decent to wear.”

Of course, the fact that Merkel was both a woman and from East Germany played a role. She checked two key boxes for making Kohl’s cabinet more diverse. Also, she hadn’t made any missteps – a fact which, in the chaotic period right after reunification, was enough to land her a spot in the government.

Ask any German old enough to have witnessed it, and they’ll tell you about the election night of September 18, 2005. The results were super close – but by the end, it was clear the CDU was ahead. That didn’t stop Gerhard Schröder from declaring himself the winner in a post-election TV interview. Merkel was stunned but kept her composure, calmly responding, “The simple fact is, you didn’t win tonight.”

With that first statement as the clear victor, Merkel set the tone for her leadership as Chancellor: factual, steady, and firm.

In the summer of 2007, the first banks in Germany were hit by the credit crisis in the US. The problem was, if even just one bank went under, it could trigger a chain reaction of bankruptcies. Many financial institutions were simply “too big to fail.” The government, the banks, and the citizens all had a common interest: a stable financial system. But at the same time, there was a glaring injustice – banks that had mismanaged their funds were going to be bailed out with taxpayer money.

In September 2007, the US government under George Bush decided to set an example and not bail out the investment bank Lehman Brothers. The bank subsequently filed for insolvency, which set off a wave of bankruptcies that gradually affected not just financial institutions but also currencies.

There’s another phrase from Angela Merkel that’s gone down in history: “We can do it.” Let’s put this into context.

In September 2015, the situation with refugees fleeing to Europe had reached a dramatic head in the wake of the Arab Spring. More and more people were coming to Europe seeking safety and a better life. The number of drownings in the Mediterranean continued to rise, and refugees were increasingly choosing the route through Eastern Europe. In turn, Hungarian President Viktor Orbán had many of them bused to the Austrian border. 

Over the course of her 16 years as Chancellor, Angela Merkel encountered pretty much all the big names in politics. With some, she formed friendships; with others, things were more challenging. So what were they really like – the most powerful people in the world?

Let’s start in the US. When Merkel became Chancellor in 2005, George W. Bush was in power. From the moment of her first official visit, Merkel could tell he was sincere and genuinely interested. That positive impression only grew stronger when she invited Bush to visit her constituency a year later. The two leaders didn’t just get along well – Bush was also a hands-on and down-to-earth guy, who, for example, wasn’t about to miss the chance to flip the spit roasting a wild boar during a social gathering. And in 2007, Bush invited Merkel and her husband to his ranch in Texas for a weekend with his family. This naturally made it much easier to negotiate with him at political summits and achieve joint results.

In 2020, Angela Merkel faced her final major test as Chancellor. A few years earlier, the media had mocked her when she referred to the digital world as “uncharted territory.” But now, it was truly uncharted territory for everyone. The world’s governments were all stepping into the unknown. No one had experience in how to handle a global pandemic. The virus spread at an alarming rate, and at first, no one knew how dangerous it was or how exactly it was transmitted.

So, Merkel spent the last two years of her chancellorship back in crisis mode. Although her scientific background helped her make sense of what was happening – she was aware of what exponential growth meant, for example – many politicians and citizens lacked this understanding, which made her job even more difficult.

Even before the 2017 federal election, Merkel had wondered whether she should run again. But by 2021, she was sure – 16 years was enough.

As soon as Merkel decided not to run for office again, she realized how tired she was; she felt as if she was almost longing for the end. Her body was also clearly telling her how much she had pushed herself: at three official events, all held while standing, she started to shake uncontrollably and had to sit down. Because of that, she broke protocol and sat through her next few appointments.