The Not-So-Marvelous Mrs. Merkel

For a few months in the winter of 2016, German chancellor Angela Merkel was widely hailed as the last bulwark of Western democracy. Some went so far as to call her the true leader of the free world. After outgoing United States president Barack Obama had his final official meeting with Merkel, he reportedly told his team: “She’s all alone.”

In America, Donald Trump had just been elected the 45th president of the U.S. The United Kingdom had recently voted to leave the European Union. The leaders of France, Italy, Japan, and South Korea were looking weak. In Russia and China, dictators were gaining in confidence. Only Merkel was steadfastly standing up for liberal values (or so the story went).

Now, Merkel has published her memoir, pointedly called Freedom. It is a reminder of how remarkable her life story is. Raised as a pastor’s daughter in communist East Germany, she was 35 years old at the time of reunification. Underestimated by her friends and foes alike, she enjoyed a meteoric political rise after the fall of the Berlin Wall. By the time she was 51, she held the most powerful office in the country, one that she would not relinquish for the next 16 years.

I came away from reading Merkel’s memoir fully convinced that she is as decent as she is dogged. But when Merkel starts to discuss the key turning points of her time in office, a feeling of tragedy descends. Although she always strived to do the right thing, she ultimately got nearly everything wrong—a lesson she refuses to learn to this day. “If it helps someone to say, ‘It was Merkel’s fault,’ then let them do that,” she sullenly suggested at the official presentation of her book in Berlin. “I just don’t think that’s going to help the country.”