Discovering Angela Merkel, the private person of the woman who changed history

Many have evoked her in recent months as the only credible mediator in the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine: we are speaking, of course, of Angela Merkel, for 16 years leader of Germany and since last December voluntarily retired to private life. Merkel, however, has so far kept faith with the promise to give up active politics, leaving disappointed the many who regret her charisma and her sagacity as a great mediator. A disappointment that cannot come as a surprise given that we are talking about an absolute protagonist of the recent history of Europe. A leader often indispensable, sometimes contested, always protagonist of the events in which she found herself involved. In fact, no head of government in democratic countries has resisted the wear and tear of time and the physiological fatigue of the electorate more than she. No one has known how to keep the course in the great emergencies of our time. To the storms that marked her sixteen years at the helm of Germany - the sovereign debt crisis, Greece's financial chaos, waves of migration, the environmental crisis, international terrorism and the pandemic - Angela Merkel responded by holding together in a delicate balance German interests and European ideals. And in exceptional circumstances he acted on impulse, as if the moral drive had the upper hand over prudence.

A true protagonist, of which, however, very little is known about her personal story. A gap that is largely filled by the interesting biography dedicated to the German leader by Massimo Nava, a journalist for the Corriere della Sera, entitled Angela Merkel. The woman who changed history (Rizzoli, 2021, Euro 19.00, pp. 372. Also Ebook). In the book the story of the German Chancellor is told with a particular approach, placing the accent on Merkel's origins: Protestant education, youth in the gray cloud of the communist dictatorship in East Germany, scientific training, education in an uncommon family, with a father who was pastor of the Lutheran Church.

Why is it so important to start from the origins of the Merkel "phenomenon"?

“First of all because this part of life is the least known. It was the most interesting part to explore compared to the one related to the period of political and public engagement. Merkel at that point becomes a character always on the international limelight and in a certain sense known. In the first part there was a whole life to discover. The second reason is because in my opinion understanding the first Merkel, that is her formation, her 'navigation' in the troubled waters of East Germany is a way to understand the public and political Merkel ”.

What did the fact of growing up in a particular state like East Germany give political Merkel?

“I believe that the youth experience must be distinguished in at least two aspects. First of all family education, the strongly ethical approach determined by parents. Protestant education accompanied Angela Merkel throughout her life as the former chancellor is still a believer today. Then there is the more public part linked to his juggling in East German society and institutions. And here there are lights and shadows because Merkel participated in the public life of East Germany, without ever compromising herself, but without even becoming an opponent of the communist regime in power. Merkel had the ability to never be a dissident, but at the same time she did not even turn into an accomplice of the regime condemned by history. Merkel, however, was not a participant in the revolution that brought down the GDR. It emerged later on the public scene ”.

Merkel's chancellor has marked the political life of Germany and of the whole of Europe at the beginning of the millennium. What were the lights and shadows of this long period of stay in power?

“The judgment of this long period in which Merkel has been in government and also leads her party is necessarily controversial. Not everything went in the best way, but Merkel's great merit is that she prevented Europe from imploding despite the 2008 economic crisis, the Greek crisis, the tensions in Ukraine that began well before the Russian attack on February 24th. and the pandemic. Merkel has often been able to keep the dialogue open with her European partners and has had courageous initiatives such as welcoming almost a million refugees fleeing the war in Syria and the choice to abandon nuclear power made in 2012. She then led Germany to a important economic growth, especially starting from 2013. Most recently Merkel married, in collaboration with the French President Macron, the idea of a major economic aid to Europe crossed by the pandemic, with an important share of aid also given to Italy ".

And the shadows?

"The shadows, now magnified by the propaganda of his opponents, are the pursuit of an international policy that took too much into consideration the needs of the German productive apparatus and which led to an excessive dependence on energy on Russia and on technology and economics in terms of exports with China. Today, with the ongoing crisis and the war in Ukraine, these choices are penalizing Germany, the country that suffers most from the new international situation ”.

All demerit of Angela Merkel?

“In my opinion no. Germany has a policy of closeness to Russia that dates back well before Merkel. And then the criticisms are partly ungenerous because in the 16 years she was Chancellor Merkel governed for three terms in coalition with the Social Democrats, that is, those who today criticize her choices ”.