Three years since she stepped down from public office, four-term German chancellor Angela Merkel has written a memoir. Freedom. Memoirs 1954-2021.
She has had by any measure, an extraordinary 31-year political career, notable for its many firsts: the first easterner in Helmut Kohl’s post-unification cabinet in 1990; in 2000, the first woman to lead the centre-right Christian Democratic Union; and, for 16 years from 2005, the first woman to serve as federal chancellor.
She led by consensus, one of the most influential politicians in the world, making decisions that will have ramifications for Europe and Germany long after her decision to step away from politics.
So does this memoir – all 700 pages of it – pull back the curtain, and give readers a better understanding of this extraordinary woman and why she made the calls she did?
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Irish Times Berlin correspondent Derek Scally who covered events in Germany throughout the Merkel era has read the memoir – and, he tells, In the News, isn’t impressed.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan and Aideen Finnegan.
