Angela Merkel defends her legacy in her latest memoir
Germany's second longest-serving chancellor reflects on her 16 years in office—a widely praised tenure that has also been criticised for being soft on Russia and migrants
Laura Hegarty_Al Majalla
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel defends her legacy in her latest memoir
During the 16 years that she served as Germany’s first woman Chancellor from 2005 to 2021, Angela Merkel arguably became the most influential European leader of her generation. Not only was Merkel the first woman to hold Germany’s most powerful political office: by the time she retired she had become the second longest-serving chancellor in German history.
Moreover, as the leader of a country which boasted Europe’s most powerful economy, Merkel became the pre-eminent political leader within the European Union, becoming a dominant voice on issues ranging from Europe’s response to the 2008 financial crisis to spearheading the EU’s response to the migrant crisis caused by Syria’s brutal civil war in 2015.
In between times, Merkel also played a major role in shaping Europe’s dealings with key global leaders—from Russian President Vladimir Putin to US President Donald Trump. Her critics assert that her cordial relations with Putin made Germany dependent on Russia’s natural resources to fuel its economy.
Merkel’s insistence, for example, on forging ahead with the construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea came in the face of strong opposition from then-US President Barack Obama, who warned that Europe’s increasing dependency on Russia for its energy needs could leave the continent vulnerable to blackmail by Putin.
In the book, Merkel says her strong personal relationship with Putin helped to maintain peace and security in Europe
Fast forward to February 2022 and Putin's invasion of Ukraine. When NATO rushed to Kyiv's support, Putin tried to use his vital oil and gas pipeline into Europe as a form of leverage. The pipeline was blown up and then blown up, allegedly by Ukrainian special forces who detonated a series of underwater explosions, rendering it inoperable in September 2022.
And Merkel's belief that Putin's Russia posed no serious threat to European security meant that she saw no need for the German government to spend much on defence. Her refusal to spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defence—a basic requirement for NATO membership—gave credence to Trump's charge that Europe wasn't spending enough on NATO defence, and he threatened to withdraw from the alliance if they didn't step up. This issue will likely come up again when Trump begins his second term as president next year.
Another Merkel policy that proved highly controversial was the open door policy the former German chancellor adopted towards Europe's migrant crisis in 2015 when she granted asylum to an estimated one million people fleeing Syria's brutal conflict. The arrival of so many asylum seekers in Germany was one of the reasons for the rise of far-right parties, such as the hardline Alternative for Germany (AfD) movement, which viewed migrants as a threat.
With such a controversial record, the 70-year-old Merkel, who retired from front-line German politics after she resigned as Chancellor in 2021, is now attempting to safeguard her legacy with the publication of her newly-released autobiography, Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021. Co-authored with her longstanding advisor, Beate Baumann, the 720-page book covers what Merkel calls her "two lives, the first up to 1990 in a dictatorship and the second since 1990 in a democracy".
Books of German former Chancellor Angela Merkel's "Freedom: Memories 1954 - 2021" ("Freiheit") are displayed at the Deutsches Theatre in Berlin, Germany on November 26, 2024.
Merkel's reference to living under a dictatorship recalls the early years of her life when she lived in Soviet-controlled East Germany. Born to Horst and Herlind Kasner in Hamburg in 1954, the family soon moved to East Germany, where her father worked as a Lutheran pastor.
After completing her High School studies, Merkel moved to Leipzig in 1973 to study physics at Karl Marx University (now the University of Leipzig). It was during this period that she met her first husband, fellow physics student Ulrich Merkel and the two were married in 1977, although the marriage eventually ended in divorce five years later. Merkel continued with her studies, eventually being awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986.
As a student in the German Democratic Republic, Merkel participated in a number of the state's youth organisations, although she has subsequently insisted she was more involved in arranging cultural activities than being involved in socialist politics. She insists that when, at one point during her studies, she was approached by East Germany's infamous Stasi intelligence service to become an informer, she declined.
It was only after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany that Merkel became actively involved in German politics, eventually becoming Chancellor in 2005.
But it is the attempt by the politician, once dubbed "the mother of Europe" and won four German elections, to justify this latter stage in her career that makes for the most compelling reading in her book as she seeks to justify her policy approaches.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their meeting in Sochi on May 18, 2018.
In the book, Merkel says her strong personal relationship with Putin helped to maintain peace and security in Europe. Interviewed by the BBC to discuss her new book, Merkel argued that the gas deals she struck with Moscow during her Chancellorship were good for German firms and helped keep the peace.
Under its current government, Germany is now labelled by some as "the sick man of Europe" because of its poor economic performance. Once an export powerhouse on the world stage, its economy hovers just above recession.
Merkel, though, is unrepentant, insisting that her intervention to block Ukraine's attempts to join NATO in 2008 helped to prevent war between Moscow and Kyiv from erupting sooner.
"We would have seen military conflict even earlier," she argues. "It was completely clear to me that President Putin would not have stood idly by and watched Ukraine join NATO. And back then, Ukraine as a country would certainly not have been as prepared as it was in February 2022."
World leaders like Obama praised Merkel's decision to grant asylum to 1 million refugees fleeing Syria's brutal war—a position she still stands by
Merkel is similarly robust in defending her migration policy, which many see as the defining moment of her time in office. While she received plaudits from world leaders like Obama for her humanity, her generosity is credited with helping to revive the AfD, which was very much a fringe group back in 2015. The AfD's strong anti-migration stance has resulted in it reaching second place in German public opinion polls ahead of a snap general election early next year.
Merkel counters that the only way to prevent the spread of far-right parties in Germany and the rest of Europe is to combat illegal migration. She argues that Europe's leaders need to invest more in African nations to improve their living standards so that fewer people will be tempted to leave their homes.
And while Merkel's tenure as German Chancellor for 16 years has been criticised by some, her new book demonstrates that she stands by her policies and positions, which have shaped her legacy as one of Germany's longest-serving chancellors.
