Freedom

picture growing up in the gdr dictatorship, getting a doctorate in physics, having to reorient yourself in an environment of unfamiliar freedom, and then having a stratospheric political career. 

we’re talking about the one and only angela merkel, who went from being an average woman with a gdr haircut to the most powerful woman in the world. 

merkel held the top office in the federal republic of germany for 16 years before handing it over to olaf scholz on december 8, 2021. in 2024, the year her autobiography was published, she was 70 years old and had experienced 35 years in the gdr and 35 years in the frg.

you don’t have to be a fan of angela merkel’s politics or her party – open critique is one of the hallmarks of the liberal society for which angela merkel has always stood. but this chapter takes a look at the most important milestones from merkel’s life to give you an understanding of the chancellor’s extraordinary story. 

it all began in hamburg in 1954...

angela merkel, née kasner, was born in hamburg in 1954, but the family moved to the gdr just a few weeks after her birth. the reason? her father, a protestant pastor, was convinced he was needed there. in templin, the kasners lived at the waldhof, a seminary for church-based continuing education. there was also a church facility for people with mental disabilities on the same site, with a gardening, farming, and carpentry workshop attached to it. essentially, the waldhof was an alternative microcosm in an otherwise conformist country.

after the wall was built in 1961, the kasner family understood they were living in a dictatorship, where the rights of the individual only existed on paper. angela had been aware since her early childhood that she had to watch what she said and did. only at home and with her family could she speak openly, vent her frustrations, and talk to her two younger siblings about what they thought of the gdr. the waldhof was a shelter for them – they kept their mouths shut outside their own four walls.

as a pastor’s daughter, angela was an outsider at school. she was also the only child in her class who wasn’t allowed to eat in the canteen at lunchtime. why? because her mother didn’t work – a situation that was disparaged in the workers’ and farmers’ state. but that didn’t mean angela wasn’t popular; actually, she had lots of friends.

being an outsider drove her to excel at school. angela knew she had to be better than her classmates, if only to get into college. but she wasn’t free when it came to choosing a major, even though she graduated from school with straight a’s. as a “politically unreliable element,” popular subjects weren’t open to her, so she decided to go with physics. 

for one, physics had been easy for her at school. also, she suspected the natural sciences were still the most ideology-free field. one plus one equals two – that was just as true under communism as it was under capitalism.

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. 

it helped that she found good friends she could speak to openly – and also that she fell in love. a year before she graduated, ulrich and angela, who from then on bore the surname merkel, got married. they married for love, but also so they could later work in the same city. otherwise, they’d have probably been assigned to wherever they were needed.

after graduating, the couple moved to berlin. the year was 1978. an application in ilmenau had come to nothing, which was probably due to the fact that the stasi wanted to recruit angela as an informant there – after all, she had contacts in the highly suspicious church scene. she tricked her way out of this situation by playing the naive gossip and exclaiming, “i have to tell ulrich about this right away, he’ll never believe me!”

in berlin, angela worked at the central institute for physical chemistry and wrote her dissertation. without the freedom of student life, however, her existence became increasingly monotonous, gray, and depressing. having the berlin wall in front of her every day didn’t make it any better. breaking out of the system seemed impossible. 

but in her private life, a change was taking place: in 1981, angela separated from her husband and moved into an empty apartment – or rather, occupied it. as there were no official apartments, she and a friend broke into the abandoned apartment and changed the lock. she then simply paid the same rent as her neighbors and, with a bit of luck, became a regular tenant.

through her work, the young physicist got to know open-minded and interesting people. they talked about everything from books to theater premieres to how to acquire a drill. in short, they made the best of their situation. and in the mid-1980s, angela met her second husband, joachim. together, they bought a dilapidated house near templin. apart from research trips to socialist countries, this was their distraction from the dreary situation; the couple stayed busy with renovation work amid the shortages of the planned economy until the fall of the berlin wall in 1989.

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.

the first thing merkel did was to look for a political home. she was undecided about where to place herself and attended events organized by several parties and political groups. ultimately, she felt most comfortable with a newly founded party called the demokratischer aufbruch, or democratic awakening (da).

the collapse of the dictatorship hadn’t just left a power vacuum; it had also created a ton of chaos. all the structures, organizations, and offices had to be reorganized. then, of course, there was the issue of reunification and, along with it, new legislation. in these turbulent times, merkel made a meteoric rise – one that was largely driven by chance. for example, she got her job as press spokesperson for the da because the group’s chairman, wolfgang schnur, had accidentally double-booked his appointments. the da urgently needed someone who could speak on his behalf, and merkel happened to be in the right place at the right time. 

the new tasks, the political work, and the feeling of finally being able to make a difference helped merkel blossom. and she did her job well. in march 1990, the east german volkskammer was reelected for the last time and the cdu, which had formed an alliance with the da and other groups, became the strongest party. merkel had made her mark as a spokesperson, so she was reappointed after the election. just a few weeks later, the da merged with the cdu. merkel had officially joined the ranks of the country’s leading party.

she found herself at the forefront of reunification. many questions were debated: was the deutschmark coming – and if so, when? what would happen to state-owned companies? when would west germany’s social security system start paying pensions for east germans, and how much would they get? which east german laws needed to be harmonized or changed? on october 3, 1990, the time had finally come: germany was reunited.

merkel had long realized how much she enjoyed political work, so she decided to step down as spokesperson and run for a seat in the bundestag. since berlin wasn’t exactly short on politicians, she was assigned the small grimmen district, which hadn’t managed to find its own candidate. and so the grind began: merkel met with the local cdu chapter, put up posters, handed out flyers, and talked to voters. 

on december 2, 1990, she won the direct mandate and became a member of the bundestag. merkel was 36 years old at the time. she would go on to represent this constituency until the end of her political career in 2021.

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.

she was soon named minister for women and youth. as luck would have it, merkel had broken her leg a few weeks earlier and was on crutches. worried about tripping over a long skirt, she went out and bought a pantsuit instead. wearing it in the face of traditional expectations for women at the time felt like a bold act of defiance.

looking back, merkel reflects on traditional gender roles: “thankfully, times changed quickly.” for many years, she resisted calling herself a feminist. but today, she’s glad society is moving closer to gender equality and openly says, “yes, i’m a feminist – in my own way.”

the ministry for women and youth was a so-called “soft department.” during her four years as minister, merkel’s most significant focus was abortion legislation. this led to plenty of friction with her conservative party, and she frequently had to compromise. her conclusion? “progress does exist, even if it moves at a snail’s pace.”

four years later, in october 1994, the cdu/csu and fdp once again won the majority in the bundestag. helmut kohl remained chancellor and appointed merkel as minister for the environment, nature conservation, and nuclear safety. at first, she faced an uphill battle, as her predecessor, klaus töpfer, had been a trailblazer in environmental policy – he’d introduced the green dot recycling system and prepared the 1992 earth summit in rio de janeiro. compared to him, merkel was seen as uninspiring and overly loyal to her party.

she also faced challenges that didn’t exactly boost her popularity. for instance, she was in charge of overseeing the controversial castor transports, which involved moving reprocessed radioactive waste and protecting the shipments from antinuclear protesters. while merkel believed the transports were necessary, she was always on edge, hoping no one would get hurt. she even spoke directly with the protesters, knowing there wouldn’t be an agreement but hoping to at least earn their respect.

overall, merkel found the role of environment minister exciting and deeply fulfilling, giving her the sense that she could make a real impact. she would have gladly stayed on after her four years, but that wasn’t in the cards. in the 1998 election, the cdu/csu and fdp lost their majority, and gerhard schröder from the spd became chancellor. 

for the first time since reunification, merkel and the cdu found themselves in opposition. but that didn’t mean things got slower for her – quite the opposite. just a year later, helmut kohl was forced to step down as party leader due to a donation scandal. merkel made a bold move: without consulting her colleagues, she published an article in the frankfurter allgemeine zeitung, breaking with her political mentor and calling for full transparency. the move made her a symbol of the cdu’s much-needed renewal.

while many senior cdu and csu politicians accused her of betrayal, the party base rallied behind her. and in april 2000, merkel was elected chairwoman of the cdu. later, after edmund stoiber’s failed bid for chancellor in 2002, she also became leader of the parliamentary group. 

as leader of the opposition, she was now the clear frontrunner to become the cdu’s next candidate for chancellor.

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.

after she was elected chancellor – a moment she described as a whirlwind – the real work began. merkel had to form a government and embark on introductory visits around the globe. it didn’t take long for her to realize just how demanding life as chancellor would be. governing germany meant navigating countless competing interests and steering them toward a shared direction.

on top of everything else, she had endless appointments – many of them recurring. the list of people and organizations she needed to meet with included over 70 entries, from the german family organizations association to the world economic forum in davos. and these weren’t just quick handshakes. merkel had to come prepared to every meeting, fully informed about the people, facts, interests, and sensitivities involved. she had to constantly mediate, represent, and reconcile. there were also daily agenda items, like briefings and morning updates. emotional slip-ups or sleeping in? not an option. the pressure was constant – after all, every decision she made impacted people’s lives.

you might think that someone with such responsibility, traveling the world on her own government jet, would get a bit detached. but with angela merkel, that didn’t seem to be the case. when she reflects on her day-to-day life in the chancellor’s office, she fondly remembers the excellent mixed salads served by the kitchen there, saying, “how long would it have taken me to chop those vegetables at home?”

she also found moments of peace and quiet – especially at her house in uckermark, where she would occasionally retreat with her husband. this grounding was essential, as merkel would soon have to guide germany through some challenging times.

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.

what made this crisis especially difficult for merkel was knowing the situation would get hard for everyone – no matter what she did. all she could do was try to minimize the damage. often, things became urgent, and she had to find financing solutions in late-night negotiations before the markets in asia opened. the financial crisis was like a black hole, swallowing billions. merkel felt anger and pressure, but was unable to make free decisions and could only ever try to avoid the greater evil.

the crisis threatened not only the euro but also the cohesion of the eu itself. for merkel, the european union was the foundation of a secure and free future for europe – she couldn’t and didn’t want to risk its collapse. so, she rolled out more bailout packages, including aid for greece, which in turn gave a boost to right-wing populism in germany.

describing this situation, merkel said something that sparked heavy criticism – that there “weren’t any alternatives” to her approach. of course, that wasn’t literally true. there were alternatives to saving the banks and the euro. but those would have resulted in citizens losing their money – and with it, their trust in the financial system. the eu would have likely fallen apart, and europe might have descended into chaos. 

as merkel put it: “if the euro fails, europe fails.” and for her, that simply wasn’t an option.

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. 

the refugees were desperate – and determined. had they been turned away at the border, violence would have likely erupted. to preempt this, werner faymann – the austrian chancellor at the time – called merkel and said, “we’ll take half of them if you take the other half.” merkel’s response? “we can do it.”

this was the line that later got thrown in angela merkel’s face more than any other – but it was also the one the political left cheered the most. merkel herself didn’t quite understand all the fuss. for her, it was a simple, everyday statement – a reflection of her basic attitude, which could be described as trust in god, or optimism. she believed that germany and the german people could handle this situation. and didn’t her party have a “c” in its name, which stood for “christian?” what was wrong with, “we can do it?”

the warm welcome that germany showed in the summer of 2015 made merkel feel proud and grateful. the people of munich, who greeted refugees at the train station with applause, flowers, and drinks, and the countless volunteers helping in the makeshift shelters seemed to affirm her belief: we are doing this.

but of course, it wasn’t easy – hence the term refugee “crisis.” for merkel, that summer brought its share of pr disasters. there was the event in rostock, where 14-year-old reem sahwil shared how afraid she was that her family would be deported to lebanon. as reem began to cry, merkel went up to her, patted her on the back, and said, “you did great.” not exactly the most tactful response – but she couldn’t promise the girl that her family would be allowed to stay. that wasn’t her decision to make; it was up to the law and the authorities. in moments like these, merkel’s office weighed heavily on her shoulders.

like many other germans, merkel tried to make the best of the situation and greet the newcomers with a smile – like when she took a selfie with syrian refugees. for that, she was also heavily criticized, but fought back: “if we have to start apologizing for showing a friendly face in times of crisis,” she said, “then this is not my country.”

to make things worse, the situation gave a boost to the far-right afd party. but that was always the case: no matter what merkel decided or did, there were always going to be negative consequences.

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.

merkel also remembers his successor, barack obama, fondly – he was a thoughtful and open-minded man, and they collaborated well together.

but she can’t say the same about the third us president she dealt with during her time in office: donald trump. merkel’s impression of trump was that he was driven by his emotions and was hardly interested in the issues at hand. she always got the feeling that, for him, it wasn’t so much about solving problems together, but more about personal victories.

working with vladimir putin was also tricky. like trump, putin was always up for power games. sometimes he kept merkel waiting; other times he brought his dog to the meeting, knowing full well that the chancellor was afraid of dogs. but if he’d expected to provoke her with that behavior, he was mistaken. merkel didn’t let it bother her and never showed her frustration – she just carried on professionally.

another difficult negotiator for merkel was xi jinping, president of the people’s republic of china since 2013. but the difficulty for her lay less in his personality than in his ideology. merkel couldn’t ignore issues like democracy and human rights, so she regularly met with opposition figures during her visits to china. still, it was possible to practice realpolitik with xi jinping – both looked beyond their ideological differences and did what was best for their respective countries, especially in terms of economic cooperation.

as you can see, even top-level meetings required a lot of patience, diplomacy, and tact, and they weren’t always a pleasure for merkel. but by 2020, these face-to-face meetings were a moot point anyway.

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.

it was also an emotionally exhausting time for merkel. she knew she was asking a lot from her citizens with the strict measures in place. the situation of elderly people in nursing homes, who were no longer allowed visitors, and of children, who were isolated at home, weighed heavily on her heart. but at the same time, it was truly a matter of life and death. and not protecting older patients or those with preexisting health conditions went against not only her personal convictions but also article 1 of the german constitution.

despite being fully convinced that she was doing the right thing, merkel didn’t take the measures lightly. that’s why she decided to directly communicate with the nation in a speech on march 18, 2020. in it, she emphasized that freedom of movement and travel was one of the highest rights, and that she was temporarily limiting it only because it was absolutely necessary.

in germany, health matters are handled by individual states, but the pandemic also required a lot of work from the federal government. the ministry of health was under pressure to secure medical protective equipment. they also had to constantly weigh measures against the current danger and the latest knowledge about the virus. mask mandates? where and when? school closures, yes or no? and at what infection rate? every measure had to be appropriate, necessary, and proportionate – but there were often deep disagreements about what was best.

merkel was frustrated by how many politicians were acting on the principle of good hope. of course, she worried about her own family and friends, and the protective measures made life hard for her too – international diplomacy, for example, is much trickier over zoom than in person. furthermore, the tough measures she implemented to protect the most vulnerable were unpopular with a large part of the population – and understandably so. but that didn’t make it any less frustrating.

the situation was constantly changing. but fortunately, things started to ease up after the second wave. with rapid testing and vaccines, new tools were added to the fight against the pandemic. and eventually, the worst was over.

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.

angela merkel officially stepped down from office on december 2, 2021, with a grand farewell ceremony. she wasn’t sure if the ceremony should even take place, since the covid-19 pandemic was still ongoing. but her government spokesperson, steffen seibert, argued that this tradition gave the departure from office a dignity that, as he put it, “goes beyond the individual.” 

the ceremony was adjusted to fit the circumstances: there was no reception, and instead of 400 guests, only 200 were invited. in her farewell speech, merkel wished everyone “joy in their hearts.” the german military band played pieces by hildegard knef and nina hagen at her request. afterward, she went to the chancellery with her husband and a few friends to wrap up the evening. 

just like on merkel’s first day as chancellor, there were sausages, meatballs, and potato salad.

in this chapter to freedom by angela merkel, you saw how, at the beginning of her career, merkel was often discredited because of her gdr past: “you don’t understand it,” her detractors said, “you grew up in a dictatorship.” later it was often claimed that she’d lived two lives: one before and one after the fall of the berlin wall. but merkel herself sees things differently – she lived exactly one life, the second part of which wouldn’t be comprehensible without the first.

after 16 years as chancellor, merkel is now free from many of the constraints that came with her role. while writing her autobiography, she spent a lot of time reflecting – especially on what freedom really means. for her, freedom isn’t just about being free from something – it also comes with the responsibility for something. 

as citizens, we enjoy the freedom to take responsibility for those around us, for our communities, and for democracy itself. but there’s one thing we can’t lose sight of: freedom only exists if it applies to everyone.

ok, that’s it for this chapter. we hope you enjoyed it. if you can, please take the time to leave us a rating – we always appreciate your feedback. see you soon.