A song from Hildegard Knef followed, a singer who injected a bit of rebelliousness into stolid postwar Germany. The last images of her as Germany’s leader showed a woman in a heavy overcoat against the icy cold at the Bendlerblock – the Defense Ministry in Berlin where Claus von Stauffenberg and his accomplices were hanged following their unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler – listening to the German military band playing a folk-pop song by Nina Hagen, who is from East Berlin, though left for the West and even became famous as a punk singer in New York. She was still chancellor at the time, but likely had a foreboding that such historical baggage could weigh heavy.Īlmost exactly a year ago, Angela Merkel left the Chancellery as a heroine of the free world. When Merkel heard about this for the first time, her reported response was: "Oh, shit." Before that, back when the Berlin Wall still ran by outside the window, it was used by East German National Education Minister Margot Honecker. This used to be the office of ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl. SPIEGEL Media Menü SPIEGEL Media aufklappen. ![]()
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