The line goes all the way around the block. Some have arrived two hours ago, crowding in the cold under the lights of the first Christmas decorations, to enter the large Dussmann bookstore on Friedrichstrasse, Berlin's shopping street. A gentleman leaves in disappointment, his blue copy in hand: “She scribbled quickly and didn't even look at me! “. Inside, former Chancellor Angela Merkel signs the first copies of her memoirs, published on November 26 in Germany and in around thirty countries including France.
“Merkel, it’s a part of my childhood, says Nicolas, a 23-year-old political science student who is waiting standing in line. People of my generation don't like her, they say she did nothing for the climate, nothing for infrastructure, no reforms, that she actually had no vision. It's true. But there was a sense of stability when she led the country. Even if it's just a feeling, and not the truth. » A few meters away, a tourist is photographed all smiles while showing off his signed copy. “Merkel is much more than politics, she is a cultural phenomenon! “, laughs Marc, also a student, observing the scene. “I am very critical, no one regrets her, but I just came to observe the character”, he justifies. The many admirers who wait here are imbued with a certain nostalgia, associating the Merkel years with a certain prosperity while Germany is doing badly, and the rest of the world is not much better. “His way of leading is really lacking”sighs a young woman. “If she were still here, she could have formed alliances to better manage the war, assures a high school student who wants to get into politics, who came with his mother and brother. Even if she was wrong about Putin, she would do better than Scholz.”
The release of Merkel's memoirs was organized like a rockstar's tour, with a small number of sold-out events: public readings broadcast live on the Internet, signings in Berlin, Cologne and Stralsund – her former constituency – in Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, television shows, podcasts, then conversation in Washington with Barack Obama on December 2. The publisher has cultivated secrecy: no figures on print runs or royalties have been made public.
“Even with hindsight, no mistake!” »
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