Angela Merkel speaks on memoirs in the works

Former chancellor Angela Merkel is keeping busy with writing her memoirs, which she plans to publish in 2024, saying the process helps her reflect on her eventful life as she settles into retirement

Inga Jahn, dpa I Sunday, April 30, 2023

LEIPZIG – Former German chancellor Angela Merkel is keeping busy with writing her memoirs, which she plans to publish in 2024, saying the process helps her reflect on her eventful life as she settles into retirement.

Together with her long-time office manager Beate Baumann, she is working through her childhood, but also her chancellorship, the conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) said on Saturday evening at an event at Germany’s Leipzig Book Fair.

“That creates clarity – piece by piece – but also demands concentration,” Merkel said of the process. Following the end of her chancellorship, the 68-year-old said she was doing well, pointing out that she felt “content.”

The former chancellor’s visit aroused great interest among visitors to the book fair, held annually in the eastern city of Leipzig, in the run up to the event.

Advertisement

In front of a sold-out audience, Merkel spoke with Giovanni di Lorenzo, editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, about her East German roots, her chancellorship and her current life, among other things.

She is making progress on her way to settling into retirement, Merkel said, smiling. “I can’t walk the streets unrecognized yet.”

Merkel also addressed the high approval ratings of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, especially in eastern Germany, in recent years.

“I have had to deal with political situations that have led to a division of opinions in Germany,” she told di Lorenzo.

Nevertheless, she said, she had no understanding for people who violated democratic principles. Merkel was responding to a question from di Lorenzo about whether her policies might have something to do with the AfD’s election results.

The fact that she had run for chancellor again in 2017, after her controversial decision to allow a great number of refugees to come to Germany, was in part because she had told herself: “I’m not running away after this decision.” She had continued to try to talk to people even in difficult situations, the former chancellor said.

Merkel was at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy for 16 years between 2005 and 2021. She was also Germany’s first female chancellor.