The two left office years ago, but also left a mark on world politics. She was once the most powerful woman in the world, he was the most powerful person on the planet.
Does friendship exist between sitting politicians who primarily serve the interests of their respective countries? Apparently yes. Barack Obama’s presidency (2009-2017) was, so to speak, framed by Angela Merkel’s 16 years of chancellorship (2005-2021), and during this time a great closeness developed between the two. Toward the end of his term, Obama described Merkel as his closest ally.
It started coldly, from both sides
That wasn’t always the case. Germans welcomed Obama’s election as president in 2008. But Merkel had already snubbed him when Obama was still campaigning: in the summer of 2008, as chancellor, she refused to allow him to use the Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop for a speech.
The then Democratic presidential candidate had to do it from the square in front of the Victory Columnwhere some 200,000 people celebrated him as a second John F. Kennedy to the rescue after the George W. Bush era. In 2003, Bush drove a wedge between the United States and some Europeans with the Iraq War. Germany, then under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of the SPD, was adamantly opposed to the war. Merkel, however, as opposition leader, sided with Bush.
In 2009, in his first year in office, Obama avoided Berlin despite two visits to Germany. It was seen as an affront. Even later, things remained cold between Merkel and Obama. There were solid political reasons for this, especially Germany’s abstention from the UN decision on military intervention in the Libyan civil war in 2011.
But not only for that. Even then Washington was urging its German ally to spend more on defense and noted that German trade surpluses were too high. All of this later got significantly worse under Donald Trump.
Espionage between friends
But despite the conflict at the time, or perhaps because of it, Obama awarded the chancellor the Medal of Freedom in 2011, the highest honor that can be awarded to a foreigner. Was it a gesture of reconciliation? An invitation to take on more responsibilities? Observers of the time drew both conclusions.
In 2013, Obama finally managed to place his stage at the Brandenburg Gate at the invitation of Merkel. They both put their hands on each other’s shoulders and showed unity. But irritation increased again, especially when the extent of American espionage by the secret service, the National Security Agency (NSA), became known.
In October of that year, it emerged that the NSA had even tapped the chancellor’s mobile phone. Merkel was very upset and later uttered a phrase that would become one of her most famous: “Spying on friends is not right.” But there were no major political consequences.
Obama praises Merkel’s refugee policy
The longer Merkel and Obama governed, the closer they seemed to become politically and personally. Peter Beyer, a member of Merkel’s conservative CDU, once told DW that what Obama especially valued in Merkel was “pragmatism, reliability and professionalism.” And he also adds: “He needed her.” With the growing political and economic weight of Germany, he could not do without the chancellor.
At the G7 summit in the summer of 2015 at Elmau Castle in Bavariaperhaps the most famous photo of the two was produced, which shows Obama sitting on a bench with his arms outstretched and Merkel appearing to explain something to him with gestures, with the Alps mountains in the background.
Politically they shared a lot. But to what extent did they complement each other? Beyer concludes: “They are very different characters.” But that didn’t hurt them at all. “Obama is a talented speaker, he reaches people. Merkel gets to the point with few words, she is not a great speaker, she does not excite people.” But they both appreciated each other because they complemented each other.
A few weeks after the G7 summit, Merkel left the German border open to refugees. The drastic measure, which perhaps polarized Germany like no other Merkel decision, was highly praised by Obama: Merkel had “convincingly reminded us that we should not turn our backs when our fellow human beings are here and now need our help.”
For Trump, the chancellor became a negative example
Then came Trump in 2017. And Merkel became a negative example for Obama’s successor in the White House. During the 2016 election campaign, the Republican declared that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton wanted to be “America’s Angela Merkel.” He claimed that Clinton wanted to apply Merkel’s “crazy” refugee policy in the United States as well.
With Trump’s election, the United States appeared to turn from an ally to an enemy of Germany on key policy issues: free trade, climate protection and the treatment of refugees.
Merkel writes in her memoirs about a meeting with Trump on March 17, 2017: “We speak on two different levels. Trump on the emotional level, me on the factual level.” He continues: “If he paid attention to my arguments, it was usually only to construct new accusations from them. “It did not seem that its objective was a solution to the problems raised.”
It is something of an irony of history that Merkel’s book is being published now, when Trump is about to begin his second term, and it almost seems like a challenge that Merkel wants to present it in the United States together with Obama.
Obama had already published his memoirs A promised land four years earlier, in November 2020. The tome, which had more than 1,000 pages, sold enormously around the world. Merkel’s book Freedomof more than 700 pages, will be published in more than 30 languages and international interest appears to be high.
The former German leader wants to present the English edition together with Obama this Monday, December 2, at the Anthem Theater in Washington. Merkel couldn’t wish for a better publicity promoter than Obama.
Keep reading:
• With massive and historic early voting, Georgia captures electoral attention.
• There are 27 districts that will define a majority in the House; In the Senate there are six key races.