The Quiet German: The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel

[Eddie Teach]

Exec summary, por favor.

[Martim Silva]

I am surprised you can write such a wall of text about someone as boring as Merkel. I will not read it though.

It seems to be a recap of Merkel's rise to power and her policies ever since, coupled with the references to the Nazi past that the american press seems to believe it has to make on every article about Germany.

That said, Merkel seems more 'quiet' than she is. In the lastest crisis with Russia, she has had more balls than I would when dealing with Putin, and that's saying something

Fun fact: Merkel's tone of voice is, of course, result of training. She currently has trained herself to remain calm when angry, because before when she did that her voice tended to became high-pitched, something that doesn't intimidate German politicians at all. So now she keeps her 'stately' tone whenever angry as a Chancellor.

[HVC]

Exec summary, por favor.

you're assuming that Tim actually read the article.

[Syt]

The most remarkable thing about her is the makeover she had since the 90s.

[mongers]

I found this section somewhat interesting:

......
Rainer Eppelmann, a courageous dissident clergyman under Communism, who got to know Merkel soon after the fall of the Wall, refuses to criticize her. "I don't judge the ninety-five per cent," he told me. "Most of them were whisperers. They never said what they thought, what they felt, what they were afraid of. Even today, we're not completely aware what this did to people." He added, "In order to be true to your hopes, your ambitions, your beliefs, your dreams, you had to be a hero twenty-four hours a day. And nobody can do this."

After 1989, when the chance came to participate in democratic politics, these same qualities became useful to Merkel, in a new way. Eppelmann explained, "The whisperer might find it easier to learn in this new life, to wait and see, and not just burst out at once—to think things over before speaking. The whisperer thinks, How can I say this without damaging myself? The whisperer is somebody who might be compared to a chess player. And I have the impression that she thinks things over more carefully and is always a few moves ahead of her competitor."
......

[CountDeMoney]

The most remarkable thing about her is the makeover she had since the 90s.

There's an American saying:  "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."  And "East German Scientist" can only get polished up so much, man.

[Grey Fox]

Merkel is the best thing that could happen to feminism everywhere.

Ugly woman actually politicaly successful.

[CountDeMoney]

Golda Meir broke that glass ceiling years ago.  Unfortunately, it was with her face.

[Sheilbh]

The saddest thing is that I read the article

Was there anything worthwhile in it?

It was interesting. I love the stuff about her skill at letting vain men self-destruct while she grows stronger. I like her sense of humour too. The stuff about her relationship with Putin and Obama (towards the end) is good too.

Ultimately I agree with Joschka Fischer's point (though he was another vain man she let self-destroy):

For now, the most pressing political question in Berlin is whether she'll stand for a fourth term, in 2017. Joschka Fischer described Germany under Merkel as returning to the Biedermeier period, the years between the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1815, and the liberal revolutions of 1848, when Central Europe was at peace and the middle class focussed on its growing wealth and decorative style. "She is governing Germany in a period where the sun is shining every day, and that's the dream of every democratically elected politician," Fischer said—but "there is no intellectual debate." I suggested that every Biedermeier has to end. "Yes," he said. "Mostly in a clash."

[KRonn]

I read some of it. It's apparent that she's a very powerful person, very politically smart and very tough, more so than most as she's defeated so many rivals who often badly underestimate her. I like how some of those who tried to walk all over her "are now in other walks of life" than politics. 

[Martinus]

Well, she is arguably the most powerful person West of Russia and East of the US.

[jimmy olsen]

Exec summary, por favor.

you're assuming that Tim actually read the article.

Of course I did

[HVC]

Exec summary, por favor.

you're assuming that Tim actually read the article.

Of course I did

where's my King Kong review?

[Jacob]

I found this section somewhat interesting:

......
Rainer Eppelmann, a courageous dissident clergyman under Communism, who got to know Merkel soon after the fall of the Wall, refuses to criticize her. "I don't judge the ninety-five per cent," he told me. "Most of them were whisperers. They never said what they thought, what they felt, what they were afraid of. Even today, we're not completely aware what this did to people." He added, "In order to be true to your hopes, your ambitions, your beliefs, your dreams, you had to be a hero twenty-four hours a day. And nobody can do this."

After 1989, when the chance came to participate in democratic politics, these same qualities became useful to Merkel, in a new way. Eppelmann explained, "The whisperer might find it easier to learn in this new life, to wait and see, and not just burst out at once—to think things over before speaking. The whisperer thinks, How can I say this without damaging myself? The whisperer is somebody who might be compared to a chess player. And I have the impression that she thinks things over more carefully and is always a few moves ahead of her competitor."
......

That mirrors my observations in China. I suppose it's a common condition in totalitarian or pseudo-totalitarian states.

[mongers]

I found this section somewhat interesting:

......
Rainer Eppelmann, a courageous dissident clergyman under Communism, who got to know Merkel soon after the fall of the Wall, refuses to criticize her. "I don't judge the ninety-five per cent," he told me. "Most of them were whisperers. They never said what they thought, what they felt, what they were afraid of. Even today, we're not completely aware what this did to people." He added, "In order to be true to your hopes, your ambitions, your beliefs, your dreams, you had to be a hero twenty-four hours a day. And nobody can do this."

After 1989, when the chance came to participate in democratic politics, these same qualities became useful to Merkel, in a new way. Eppelmann explained, "The whisperer might find it easier to learn in this new life, to wait and see, and not just burst out at once—to think things over before speaking. The whisperer thinks, How can I say this without damaging myself? The whisperer is somebody who might be compared to a chess player. And I have the impression that she thinks things over more carefully and is always a few moves ahead of her competitor."
......

That mirrors my observations in China. I suppose it's a common condition in totalitarian or pseudo-totalitarian states.

Interesting that it should carry over into the 'liberated' individual's life in the post-totalitarian state.

Personally I'd be pleased with a few more of that sort of leader as a opposed to the image driven, sound-bite ready and 24 news-cycle focused modern western politician.