From memoirs to a big birthday: that’s what Angela Merkel has to celebrate this year

On December 2, 2021, the Bundeswehr said goodbye to Angela Merkel (69) from the Chancellery after 16 years with a big coup. Almost exactly three years later, the former politician, who has rarely appeared recently, could once again cause a bang in Berlin. But even before her autobiography “Freedom” is published on November 26th, Merkel has a lot to celebrate this year.

Merkel’s husband celebrated his 75th birthday

The first celebration was already underway in Merkel’s family. Joachim Sauer, her husband, turned 75 on April 19th. The former top politician has been married to the professor of physical and theoretical chemistry since 1998.

Will she come back to the Bayreuth Festival?

The couple could perform together again at the end of July. After all, the former Chancellor and her husband are regular guests at the Bayreuth Festival. Merkel’s outfit is also discussed there every year. Last year she appeared in a shimmering green and turquoise two-piece suit; before that, the 69-year-old, who wore inconspicuous trouser suits as Chancellor, appeared in bronze or green outfits.

Farewell to Jürgen Trittin

A ceremony that Merkel also didn’t miss: Yesterday, Monday (May 13th), the Greens said goodbye to the former parliamentary group leader and Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin (69) in the Bundestag. In pictures published by Die (formerly Twitter), Merkel can be seen sitting next to Trittin in a good mood in a light blue blazer, her hands arranged in the famous Merkel diamond. She also gave a speech for her fellow politician during this rare appearance. Trittin and Merkel not only have long-standing careers in Berlin in common, the two are also almost the same age. A few days before Trittin, who was born on July 25, 1954, Angela Merkel turns 70.

70th birthday and memoirs of the former Chancellor

The physicist, who became the first woman to hold the Chancellery in 2005, was born on July 17, 1954. How she became the “most powerful woman in the world” (“Forbes”) over time will probably be read in her autobiography starting this fall. Because “of course Angela Merkel was not born chancellor,” in the announcement of Merkel’s memoirs “Freedom”: “In her memoirs, written together with her long-time political advisor Beate Baumann, she looks back on her life in two German states – 35 years in the GDR, 35 years in reunified Germany”.

Merkel talks more personally than ever before about her childhood, youth and her studies in the GDR “and the dramatic year 1989 in which the wall came down and her political life began.” The former politician also apparently wrote about her meetings and conversations “with the most powerful people in the world.” Angela Merkel herself says, among other things, about her book: “For me, freedom is not having to stop learning, not having to stand still, but being able to go further, even after leaving politics.”