Herlinde Koelbl. Angela Merkel Portraits 1991\u20132021<\/a>\u201d on 28 April 2022.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cTraces of Power\u201d is the name given to Herlinde Koelbl\u2019s project that snowballed into her photographing Angela Merkel for over 30 consecutive years \u2013 and also involved her interviewing her for part of that time. In an almost clinical setup, she attempts to find out whether any traces of power have manifested themselves in the photographs of Angela Merkel, or at least in her face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What traces could one expect to find? Increasing haughtiness? A hardening of the face and figure? That her burdens wear her down, depress or disappoint her? Or simply that she relishes wielding power? There are many possible outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to Koelbl\u2019s question about what was pleasurable about power, Angela Merkel answers: \u201cIn the past I would have said: That you can shape politics. Now I would say: That you can snatch something away from someone else.\u201d In her case, sometime later, the chancellorship from Gerhard Schr\u00f6der, a post he had never believed she could fill. It just goes to show how wrong you can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her answer to that question has something playful about it, a side that Angela Merkel doesn\u2019t usually broadcast publicly. In private, however, she is apparently playful, so her friends report. Also reflecting a cheery disposition towards wielding power is a statement she once made as CDU secretary-general [prior to becoming party leader], which surprised me. She said: \u201cI would also like to impart some cheerfulness to the party.\u201d I will duly pass the tip on to Kevin K\u00fchnert [current secretary-general of the SPD].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angela Merkel is usually described as someone who knows exactly what she\u2019s doing, is indomitable and above all never flustered. The base nature of the political machine does not affect her \u2013 or so it seems. But in conversation with Herlinde Koelbl she admits to being afraid that the office could annihilate her and that \u201cin the end society\u2019s scorn may end up being greater than if I had done nothing at all\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of years later, we see she has even less trust in people. She says: \u201cI have become more mistrustful. I was already mistrustful back then, but not nearly mistrustful enough to avoid being constantly disappointed in the business of politics.\u201d She is, or at least was, probably more vulnerable than she wanted to let on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And she consciously protects herself by dissembling and not giving anything away, a quality that she actually dislikes in others. She says: \u201cI can now wear a stony expression and not reveal what I\u2019m thinking at any given moment.\u201d People didn\u2019t want to see worries or insecurity in politicians. She confides: \u201cThat\u2019s something I won\u2019t admit to in the future, either, so that I don\u2019t have to constantly read in the papers that I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about. I think it\u2019s unfortunate that, when it comes to politicians, it\u2019s actually the cookie-cutter type that goes down best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angela Merkel wants to be authentic, but in order to acquire and maintain power, she has to dissemble and keep her true thoughts to herself. That\u2019s what experience has taught her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her dress and outward appearance, for a long time she held out against the pressure to conform. At first, female figures from West German polite society would often mock her for it. Some even felt compelled to give her a desperate word of advice, that she really had to do something about it before becoming chancellor. I think the result of her bowing to such pressure is clearly evident in the first picture of her as chancellor, from 2006. Here, in the long row of portraits up to this point, is the only instantly discernible difference from all the photographs that have gone before. In outward appearance, Angela Merkel has adapted to the mainstream, mainly by wearing mascara, eyeliner, and a change of hairstyle. This makes her seem more aloof and less original than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here it would seem that there is little joy or pleasure in having political power \u2013 to return to Herlinde Koelbl\u2019s earlier question \u2013 despite the praise and awards that get lavished on people at the top. On the contrary: power threatens one\u2019s own personal authenticity and integrity. One has to fulfil false expectations and above all keep disappointment at bay. This is a striking leitmotif in Angela Merkel\u2019s career. If its traces of power you\u2019re after, you may find them in an increasing sense of disillusionment with the people with and for whom she sets policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet many observers claim to be unable to spot any changes in Merkel in the photo series. \u201cHer facial expression is the same over thirty years,\u201d writes George Packer, describing her in the large photobook. He continues: \u201cThis emotional uniformity may be the key to Merkel\u2019s phenomenal success as a politician. The portraits from three decades bear witness to Merkel\u2019s staying power at the helm of public life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEmotional uniformity\u201d as the key to political success?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to this assessment, there are no traces of power to notice, because Merkel has switched off her feelings. But if you look closely at the corners of her mouth, you do discover a slight development. True, her face is well made up. But a change has occurred in how the corners of her mouth now point more noticeably downwards. And this change is also reflected in pictures by other photographers taken around the same time. They start to speak of disappointment and detachment from people \u2013 and these I read as traces of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They contrast with the more open, sometimes mischievous face we saw earlier on and with her unguarded manner in answering Herlinde Koelbl in the early years of her political career. In this more authentic period, her face also has a dreamy, perhaps even melancholic aspect. Melancholy and cheerfulness are not in fact mutually exclusive. Perhaps that\u2019s why she seems rather sad to many people. It\u2019s something she doesn\u2019t like, and has never understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, however, even in this more openly authentic phase there is already the mistrust that Angela Merkel herself says was a personal trait from the outset and which she consciously reinforces as a means of self-protection. In politics, she quickly realizes that the only person she can rely on is herself. It occurs to me that this realization impacted her entire understanding of politics, including how to wield the power invested in her. This is what shaped her, in my impression. Not just the scientific, analytical method of breaking problems down into their individual parts and then seeking solutions, or partial solutions, one step at a time. Also of importance is her cautiousness on principle, a scepticism towards a great vision for the future of any kind, probably because things like that contain too much enthusiasm and fiery spirit. They are no guarantee against possible disappointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another quote, Angela Merkel says: \u201cBasically I move and solve problems in the time that is, and I don\u2019t spend time thinking about the time that will one day be, if you see what I mean \u2013 that\u2019s what historians have to do.\u201d And when she says this she\u2019s not talking primarily about personal reputation, but about the historical long-term dimensions to policy-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without confidence in human nature \u2013 despite constant adversity in politics \u2013 it is unlikely that anyone could find the political courage to make long-term improvements to people\u2019s lives. Willy Brandt possessed more than his fair share of hope and utopia; without it he could not have embarked on his policy of reconciliation and understanding with the people of Eastern Europe \u2013 and of Russia. Helmut Schmidt\u2019s great intelligence and marked sobriety alone could not have brought this reconciliation about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christopher Clark and Kristine Spohr conclude their review with the conclusion that we \u201cremember Angela Merkel as a politician who showed the world how to wield power without being in the slightest bit vain\u201d. This lack of vanity has fascinated many observers and earned her, and thus her politics, a high degree of recognition. The fact that she saw through the posturing of her male colleagues Sarkozy, Berlusconi, and even Gerhard Schr\u00f6der as ridiculous machismo lent respect to her own power, but it doesn\u2019t elicit great admiration from me as a woman. And it\u2019s alright for me as a woman to take her to task on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That banal vanity was alien to her is evidenced by her cleverness and the fact that, if anything, she displays power over herself. After all, vanity is the sister of ridiculousness. She did not want to expose herself to this risk, the risk of appearing vain and therefore ridiculous. But is it really enough to say that a predominantly male weakness is the benchmark for measuring how one wields political power?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clark and Spohr cite further evidence for the wisdom behind Merkel\u2019s politics that stems from that scepticism I mentioned earlier \u2026 and I quote: \u201cAnd she has always recognized the fragility and transience of those things that most people take to be supremely robust: the West as a community of common interests and values, liberal democracy, the institutions that support responsible government, i.e., parliaments, free elections, independent judges, universities as places of free-thinking, the rule of law. As someone who experienced the sudden collapse of a regime and ideology that appeared to have a permanent place on the global stage, she knows what she\u2019s talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But is knowledge of the \u201ctransience\u201d of democracy \u2013 just because the GDR itself was transient \u2013 necessarily a sign of political wisdom? I\u2019m not sure Angela Merkel herself would be keen on this analogy. It wouldn\u2019t bode well for democracy. For if we no longer believe in democracy\u2019s values \u2026 if we let scepticism eat away at its values, then it doesn\u2019t stand a chance. The resolute actions of autocratic regimes would then have the upper hand. Angela Merkel scaled the very heights of political power and did so while maintaining her personal integrity. This in itself is an admirable achievement. She was not seduced by the banal, ignominious temptations of power and she passed them unscathed and without them leaving their trace on her. But perhaps what democracy needs is the courage to overcome scepticism and mistrust. Perhaps it needs the willingness to take risks, to let oneself be disappointed and yet still carry on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Herlinde Koelbl. Angela Merkel Portraits 1991 \u2013 2021<\/h2>\nWe\u2019re publishing the speech by Gesine Schwan, political scientist and chair of the SPD\u2019s Basic Values Commission, delivered at the opening of the exhibition \u201cHerlinde Koelbl. Angela Merkel Portraits 1991\u20132021\u201d on 28 April 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[703],"tags":[2468,2469,2470,2471,205],"class_list":["post-6039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column","tag-angela-merkel","tag-dhmmerkel","tag-gesine-schwan","tag-herlinde-koelbl","tag-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6043,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6039\/revisions\/6043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}