That interpretation is wide of the mark. It would be more correct to say that human factors can even influence relationships between heads of government, and that Merkel and Obama may be more similar than they care to admit. With their analytical coolness they are unable to put on a show of informality and warm friendship. Merkel and Obama speak on the phone regularly and hold a video conference about once a week. It is true that Obama's immediate entourage doesn't keep in such close touch with Merkel's advisers as Bush's did. And it is also true that Obama has difficulty in transferring the charisma that he uses to such brilliant effect in his speeches to personal relationships.
There were times, such as on the margins of European summits, when Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy and Merkel wondered aloud among themselves whether the American President is only so awkward, cold and unapproachable towards them. Those who attend government consultations at the White House are always surprised by the President's passive approach at the conference table; Obama's staff say the President is forever asking how many hands he has to shake that day. That is not the Obama we are used to seeing in public.
Despite the passion in his speeches, Obama is not naturally outgoing; he tends to be introverted, focused on his family and above all his wife Michelle. Yet he is sensitive enough to know when unreasonable demands are being made. During the G20 summit in Cannes, Merkel was under enormous pressure from all the other heads of government to use the Bundesbank gold reserves during the Eurozone crisis. Obama sensed that the balance of power was moving in the wrong direction, and stepped in when Merkel was about to face humiliation. He called a halt: things had gone far enough, Angela Merkel should not have to undergo political execution.
A fair amount of psychology is involved in the relationship between Merkel and Obama, but there is also a hefty dose of realism. During his first term, Obama was a prisoner of domestic politics. He was operating in a deeply hostile climate in Washington, met great resistance to his healthcare reform, while at the same time having to deal with the complex legacy of his predecessor simply in order to regain room for manoeuvre for the United States in the balance of power. As a result, Germany and Europe were not at the top of his agenda. On her part, the Chancellor was mainly concerned with the euro crisis. If she made a telephone call to Obama it was usually to do with that problem.
Merkel and Obama did once manage to bring something like personal proximity into their relationship. They were comparing their rise to the leadership of their respective countries. Both are classic political outsiders: the young black man from Hawaii and the woman from the former GDR. Both made their way in the face of strong resistance. Their career paths are not typical – indeed they verge on the incredible. Both are ruled by their heads, are highly analytical and objective. Like Merkel, Obama always tries to think problems through. Like her, he hesitates over making decisions when he can see the possible consequences.
Merkel sometimes gets annoyed at the continual questions about her relationship with the President. She does not want to go to Washington like a schoolgirl, she does not want to be awarded marks for how much affection the American President shows her in public. Her self-respect forbids it and demands equal rights. We have interests, she says, we have values in common. Merkel cannot be accused of vanity. She is also upset by stereotypes: Bush the bad guy, Obama the angel of peace.
When she was in Washington in the early summer of 2011, she joked with Obama that the press would immediately be asking how close their relationship was now, since the President hadn't come to Berlin during his first term of office. For in fact Obama visited Germany only twice in those first four years, going first to a summit at Baden-Baden, then to Dresden and Buchenwald. He declined an invitation to the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, saying he was too busy – something of an affront.
Sure enough, during the press conference in the East Room of the White House, the question of why the President hadn't yet been to Berlin was duly asked. Merkel gave a girlish grin, Obama grinned back, and she then assured him that Berlin was ready for a visit from him at any time and, as far as anyone could tell, the Brandenburg Gate would be standing for quite a while yet. The ice was broken, and the stumbling block of the Brandenburg Gate elegantly swept aside. With her light-hearted tone Merkel had let the President know that she hoped he wouldn't think of visiting Berlin as a tourist, in the same way as he had visited Paris during the summer after his election. That would seriously upset her. In fact, months before the American presidential election in November 2012, Merkel and Obama agreed that if the President were re-elected he would visit Berlin during his second period in office and before Merkel's rendezvous with the electorate. So before the German general elections, the delicate matter of the Brandenburg Gate incident was finally cleared up and Obama finally gave his speech in front of the landmark.
Merkel has high hopes for Obama's second term, but she is also anxious. Anxious for America itself: a great power racked by self-doubt, with high unemployment, an enormous debt burden, a growing gulf between rich and poor and extreme ideological tensions between left and right.
America is facing huge demographic change. Soon the white population will no longer be the majority, and the USA will increasingly lose its European character. At the same time the country is so inward-looking that it no longer understands or even sees the seismic shifts going on in the world. Merkel sometimes speaks of hegemonic diplomacy when she wants to express her uneasiness with the attitude to power of a nation like the United States. She experienced it in 1995 at the climatechange conference in Berlin, when the USA made compromise particularly difficult, and in the end refused to sign the Kyoto Agreement.
Today there is a no lack of important global issues, but the United States rarely undertakes to lead the way, and globalization tends not to fit in with the American schedule. Has the USA failed to understand the melting-pot process by which the world is changing? Those who study the country today, tracing the course taken by the old industrial regions, the impoverished south and all the isolationist undercurrents, may feel uneasy. Will the USA be the loser in the globalization process? Are we looking at the least globalized nation in the world?
The America of Merkel's nostalgic longings and the current political America are increasingly less in tune. The country has failed to bring two wars to a successful conclusion, and there is no meaningful strategy to help America stand tall again. Wars gnaw away at a society. Two wars in the wake of the terrorist attacks have brought about profound changes in the United States. Even an enthusiastic admirer of the country like Merkel can sense that. She doesn't like to see a weak America. She wants to offer the USA something, she wants to make Europe an attractive prospect for renewed cooperation. Since the beginning of her chancellorship she has been inspired by the idea of a transatlantic free-trade zone – something similar to the internal European market, but of vast dimensions. Free trade, however, is not a term to arouse enthusiasm in French socialists like François Hollande or American protectionists.
America's influence in the world is weaker now. That is not good news for those who, like Merkel, consider the weight of the United States an essential factor in European efforts to achieve equilibrium. There has been too much bad news for the country: this has drained it of its ability to get things done and has tarnished its aura. Merkel, who was more fascinated by that aura than anything else in the first thirty-five years of her life, is bound to feel concerned. She thinks in terms of strength and superiority, and would rather see a strong America than an over-powerful China.
However, on Tuesday 7th June 2011, under a clear blue sky, Angela Merkel experienced all the splendour, the glorious magnificence, the infinite generosity of the United States, the country of her dreams. On that Tuesday the President and the Washington political elite lavished on her all the honour that America has to bestow. Barack Obama was awarding Angela Merkel, the girl from the GDR who went on to achieve great things, the Presidential Medal o
f Freedom. This is the highest civil decoration in the United States, and it was given to Angela Merkel in a ceremony as splendid as any that Washington can provide.
The Chancellor had flown to Washington the day before, her official plane packed with members of the Cabinet, Prime Ministers of the different German regions, Members of Parliament and advisers. In the Chancellor's cabin at the front of the aircraft, the political elite sat with Merkel: the Foreign Minister, the Minister for Economic Affairs, the Finance Minister, the Defence Minister. Her personal official guests sat farther back. In Washington they were joined by football coach Jürgen Klinsmann and by Merkel's husband Joachim Sauer. On this special day he obviously had to be there, even if – coming straight from a conference – he only joined them in time for the dinner.
Whenever she travels abroad, Merkel is accompanied by a large retinue: two doctors, interpreters, protocol experts and civil servants, members of the security services for internal and external protection, baggage handlers and a large flight crew, from the captain to telecommunications technicians to flight attendants. On every journey, whether for just a day or an overnight stay, Merkel's stylist is there to look after her hair and make-up.
The state visit to America was a rare occasion: no one in the delegation had been on one before. Helmut Kohl and Richard von Weizsäcker were the last Germans to have been accorded this honour. Merkel had a day of fanfares and flagwaving, guards of honour, political meetings, quiet moments with the President and lunch at the State Department with many distinguished guests. The high point, however, was the state dinner given by the President in the Rose Garden of the White House.
The apartments on the ground floor are generally used for state dinners, but the Obamas resurrected an old tradition and had the Rose Garden between the main house and the Oval Office covered with a wooden floor and carpets. The President's head of protocol chose a light, silvery decorative scheme reminiscent of the Bauhaus style – candles, crystal, simple lines, regular shapes. Later, the Washington tabloids gossiped about this new minimalist approach – not only in the style, but also in the guest list. “The event looked and felt like a sophisticated outdoor wedding reception, minus the drunken bridesmaids,” wrote the Washington Post.
Before dinner, Merkel was joined by her personal guests at her residence. Obama had put the Chancellor up in Blair House, the President's guest house, directly opposite the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue and made up of several buildings. A small buffet had been laid out on the ground floor, where the Chancellor and her official guests could enjoy champagne, coffee, tea, small sandwiches and pastries. Merkel had chosen a black, short-sleeved evening gown, worn over one shoulder and falling in diagonal folds. The men were in dinner jackets, and only German talk-show host Thomas Gottschalk had allowed himself a pair of heavily embroidered black jeans and cowboy boots under his more formal top half. Germans might forgive him for that – they are familiar with Gottschalk's sartorial tastes – but it took American guests a moment or two to adjust. Later, the newspapers and Internet forums discussed the guest list, the ladies’ wardrobes (too much blue, too little risk taken in the choice of dress, etc.) and the seating plan, which gave important clues about the internal ranking of Washington's political and social elite.
Merkel and her husband entered the White House through the main entrance and were taken by Obama and his wife up to the first floor – the private apartments of the President and his family – where they had some time for private conversation. Meanwhile, on the floor below, guests mingled in the East Room. Drinks were served by female soldiers from the Marine Corps, wearing dress uniforms and full-length wrap-over skirts. Then the President, the Chancellor and their spouses came down the wide staircase. 208 guests filed past, hands were shaken 208 times while an aide read out the names of the guests, 208 photographs of the event received 208 Presidential signatures, which were later sent to each guest – important trophies in status-conscious Washington.
Merkel surveyed the gathered dignitaries lined up in front of her with amusement, and even Joachim Sauer, who is usually publicityshy, seemed to enjoy all the splendour. At dinner he sat between Michelle Obama and Eric Schmidt of Google and Bob McDonald of Procter & Gamble. The Chancellor sat between Obama and the architect Helmut Jahn, who was wearing the Federal Cross of Merit pinned to his lapel. Opposite was America's most senior judge, Chief Justice John Roberts. The conductor Christoph Eschenbach was also at their table, although he had to earn his supper by conducting a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra.
The finale to such occasions is traditionally provided by a big name from American show business or pop music. For a visit by the Chinese President Hu Jintao, Jackie Chan, Yo Yo Ma, Herbie Hancock and Barbra Streisand provided the glamour, while Beyoncé entertained the guests at the Mexican State Dinner. By the standards of the American gossip columns, and in line with her down-to-earth nature, Merkel was positively boring: James Taylor, the most American of American singer-songwriters, performed for her. Taylor later declared that the White House had specifically requested his song ‘You've got a friend’. “When you're down and troubled,” it begins on a melancholy note, “and you need a helping hand – and nothing, whoa, nothing is going right – close your eyes and think of me – and soon I will be there.” It wasn't clear which of them the song was aimed at, Merkel or Obama. But one thing was for sure: “All you have to do is call and I'll be there – you've got a friend.”
For Angela Merkel, who had first set foot on American soil twenty-two years earlier, this was a very special return. She had made freedom the leitmotiv of her political world view, and had now been awarded the Medal of Freedom in the heart of the free world. To Obama and the Americans it was simple: as the first East German to serve as Chancellor of a reunified German Republic, said a note in the menu, Dr Angela Merkel symbolized the triumph of freedom.
Her reply was brief. “History has often shown how strong the longing for freedom can be. It has inspired people to overcome their fears and oppose dictatorships.” And she went on to say: “In the end, there is no chain of dictatorship, no fetter of oppression that can withstand the strength of freedom. That is my firm belief, and it will continue to guide me.”
But Angela Merkel wouldn't be Angela Merkel if she had let it rest at that brief moment of emotion. So the state dinner in Washington ended with a heartfelt handshake. And while previous Presidents had rounded off the pomp and ceremony of state visits with an after-dinner party, she was driven straight to the airport from the south lawn of the White House and flew back to Berlin that same evening. She and her party changed out of their evening gowns and dinner jackets on the plane.
On the Defensive
Angela Merkel and War
Angela Merkel has rarely been as close to war as she was on 4th November 2007. She had been in office for two years, and had returned to Berlin from India the previous evening. That didn't prevent her from boarding another plane only a few hours later, and flying back in almost the same direction – this time to Uzbekistan, where an army Transall aircraft was waiting for her. She was flying on to Kabul. The journey had been kept strictly secret, like her three later visits to the Hindu Kush.
There were less than two dozen other passengers on board the government Airbus, and the few journalists accompanying them had been sworn to secrecy. The security guards from the Federal Criminal Investigation Agency carried an arsenal of weapons. Even the Chancellor had to wear a bullet-proof vest. The atmosphere became tense when the pilots of the military aircraft had to switch twice to an emergency flight path. The sensitive electronics of the helicopter and the Transall had picked up light reflections – an alarm signal. The flash from a rifle barrel? Anti-aircraft guns armed with infrared warheads? Or just sunlight reflecting?
The on-board electronic warning system reacted immediately and set off flares. Pyrotechnics were deployed on the tail of the aircraft. Magnesium flames were used to confuse incoming rockets, whose heat sensors navigate str
aight for the engines. Merkel's pilots took evasive action, smoke from the defensive missiles blew through the open gun hatches, the noise made the plane shake. At such moments, even experienced soldiers don't know whether or not the aircraft has taken a hit.
Angela Merkel took the incident with relative calm, and asked her military escort if they were planning to provide any more such entertainment. If you spend your life in aeroplanes, helicopters and cars, you presumably need to develop a fatalistic relationship with your protectors and their technology. On the same day, in Kabul, a would-be suicide bomber had been intercepted on his way to the airport, and two days earlier a bomb had been found in the street.
A year and a half later, during the Chancellor's second visit to Afghanistan, insurgents fired home-made rockets at the German base in Kunduz shortly after Merkel had taken off in a helicopter. They didn't hit it, but the message was clear: Afghanistan is at war, the Chancellor is a highly symbolic and valuable target, travelling to that part of the world is enormously dangerous – both for the visitor and for all the troops who are serving there.
It was two years before Chancellor Merkel managed to visit the troops in Afghanistan. Even as Leader of the Opposition, she had never once been to see the soldiers stationed there, and her image suffered as a result. When he was Foreign Minister, Steinmeier was still needling the Chancellor at the 2007 SPD party conference, saying that she was wriggling out of it. The last head of government to visit the ISAF (International Security Force) troops had been Gerhard Schröder – but that was four years earlier. Nothing better illustrates the German political establishment's discomfort about sending troops abroad than the question of how often senior politicians visit them.
Around the time of the general election in 2005, it was noticeable how the main political parties were skirting round this delicate issue. Merkel had learnt her lesson: just before the United States invaded Iraq in 2002, Gerhard Schröder had shown how to win a general election on the issues of war and peace. And although Merkel has a pragmatic attitude to the use of military power (“there are times when military intervention is unavoidable”), and visits the troops regularly, she handles the subject with great caution in public. Perhaps she learnt from her experience in the 2002 election that when it comes to military matters, she will get furthest by using quiet pragmatism.
Angela Merkel Page 12
