Angela Merkel: Does it have to be so many millions? (Opinion)

I admit, I was looking forward to Angela Merkel’s memoirs. I devoured the preprint in the “” and studied her interview with the “” carefully. Some of her answers – for example when she reminded Olaf Scholz that the office of Chancellor entails certain moral obligations, such as not simply publicly declaring former coalition partners non-persons out of frustration – made me miss her style.

But after reading it, I found myself missing another question in the discussion: Why is no one talking about the fact that this publication will make Angela Merkel an unusually rich woman? According to estimates, she will earn a double-digit million sum from the book, which will consist of 736 pages, cost 42 euros and will be published in over 30 countries. Merkel, who emphasized her down-to-earth nature while in office, her life in a very modest rented apartment, and her preference for stuffed cabbage, will soon be one of Germany’s top earners.

Doesn’t that bother anyone? I’m not writing this because the stern lost out in the preprint and interview. Of course we would have liked to have both. I’m not writing it because I think politicians are overpaid, on the contrary. In my opinion, our top representatives have incredibly stressful jobs and should earn significantly more than savings bank directors. I don’t envy their pension provision either; although it is generous, it makes perfect sense for reasons of securing their independence. I think the discussion about how many employees a former chancellor can employ in her office at state expense is petty. And of course, other ex-politicians also earn a lot of money. Former Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel advises companies like Deutsche Bank or countries like Qatar, certainly not on a voluntary basis. We would prefer not to mention Gerhard Schröder’s connection use.

I also know that the book author Merkel will be worth the money. Your work is likely to end up on buyer lists everywhere. Full transparency: The media group Bertelsmann, to which the star I heard that former President Barack Obama paid a lot of money for his memoirs, as did his wife, even more than Merkel. That pays off.

But I’m still under the impression of the last US election. This not only gave us the coronation of Donald Trump, but also revealed the growing alienation of the working class from the US Democrats. This also applies to the Obamas. The former social worker and his wife Michelle have long been partying with Hollywood stars and billionaires, they maintain houses in luxurious holiday paradises, and they earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single speech. They seem to many: elitist, part of the elite. They were obviously no longer suitable as campaign weapons for workers.

That’s just how the system is, I sometimes hear. Besides, top politicians are allowed to do that after all the drudgery. If they spent their entire careers dealing with people who were usually much richer, they would ultimately want to earn a lot of money themselves. I can understand all of these arguments. But I’m just taking stock of what was most reflected in the US election and is now also threatening us: for a lot of people, none of this is normal at all. They worry about whether they will be able to pay the rent and whether they will have enough money in old age. And when they worry, their anger often turns on those “up there.” For many of them, it was perhaps encouraging that Obama didn’t just know poor people from television. For them, it may have been inspiring that Merkel appeared so modest. And now both are multi-millionaires – at a time when their respective political legacies are being discussed very critically. In America, of all people, Donald Trump, who lives in a golden penthouse and is a billionaire himself, has cleverly used this anti-establishment sentiment for his own benefit, as a kind of supposed avenger of the disenfranchised – and also with the argument that he at least has no money at all previous political office held. The fact that Trump inherited a lot of money and probably swindled other things seemed secondary to angry voters. And in Germany?

At the beginning of December, Obama and Merkel will be together in Washington DC. appear to present Merkel’s book. This should be a lovely, cheerful evening, with lots of clever thoughts. But it will also be an evening that will make some, in America and Germany, shake their heads and say: “They’ve got their shit together.”

Of course, we don’t have to chase after anyone who simply harbors narrow-minded prejudices. But completely ignoring how angry some people are right now won’t help us, see the US election. I don’t want to dictate anything to anyone, especially not to a woman as smart as Angela Merkel. And of course I don’t know how I would deal with a million-dollar book contract myself. But I catch myself having a thought that I also have when I read about the crisis at Volkswagen and know that VW’s major shareholders recently received 4.5 billion euros in dividends: Wouldn’t it help, multiply it to a million refrain from donating them or giving them to a foundation? Wouldn’t that pay off for all of us?