There probably aren’t many politicians who count a symposium entitled “Of Bacteria, Men and Science” as relaxation. The physicist and former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) can be counted among them, as she did when she re-entered the public atmosphere four weeks ago in a conversation with the mirror-Journalist Alexander Osang himself known. Merkel said that when she reads about herself that she sneaks back and only makes feel-good appointments, “then I say yes.” The performance in the Berliner Ensemble, a big interview in the former chancellor’s officea visit to a museum with former US President Barack Obama in Washington and now, this Tuesday, in Halle, a speech on the 70th birthday of former Leopoldina President Jörg Hacker – these are Merkel’s feel-good dates.
She had a close relationship with Hacker for years, took advice from him on the G7 and G20 presidencies and actually wanted to give the farewell speech two years ago when Hacker handed over his office to Gerald Haug. But then the attack in Hanau destroyed the plan, Merkel canceled and sent a state secretary. On Tuesday morning, however, she entered the stage of the National Academy of Sciences in front of 200 applauding guests. “Dear Chancellor, dear Angela Merkel,” she greets Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, “it’s good that we hear you speak today.”
In three minutes to antibiotic resistance
Merkel nods and gets straight to the point, namely the bacteria. There are ten times as many bacteria as cells on and in humans. “99 percent of these bacteria make up the intestinal flora. That’s at least 400 species.” In contrast, only ten billion bacteria live in a human mouth. “Weakly equipped,” says the physicist, and the science audience laughs. Humans and bacteria are very closely linked, says Merkel, and after three minutes of speaking time, she comes to blood poisoning and antibiotic resistance.
The topic is not currently in the focus of the general public, but it has always been important to hackers. Asked about Merkel’s merits, he told the time in December, as a science educator, she has received too little attention over the years. “She was the first head of government to put issues such as global health and the global fight against antibiotic resistance on the agenda.” Before the G-20 summit in Hamburg, the Leopoldina had invited representatives from 20 international science academies to Halle, and Angela Merkel was present.
“You were lucky”
Merkel made it very clear on Tuesday that she appreciates the value of scientific advice in general and hackers in particular: “You were a stroke of luck,” she said to Hacker. He has combined scientific excellence with the ability to work in an integrative manner and bring people together in an interdisciplinary manner. Hacker was not only President of the Academy from 2010 to 2020, he worked for a long time as Vice President of the German Research Foundation, headed the Robert Koch Institute and the Institute for Molecular Infection Biology at the University of Würzburg.
“I also valued your advice,” says Merkel, coming to science after bacteria and human hackers. Especially in times of Corona, the Leopoldina was “of great importance for me and my decision-making processes”. Scientifically sound political advice will also be crucial “because fact-based judgment will become more and more important in times of fake news and almost endless possibilities of disinformation.” The strength and relevance of the Leopoldina lies in the bundling of different disciplines and perspectives.
The fact that the physicist Merkel loves the scientific perspective was already shown at her 50th birthday party. There, the brain researcher Wolf Singer gave a lecture on the “Brain – An example of the self-organization of complex systems”. The FDP leader at the time, Guido Westerwelle, almost missed the party because his office initially threw away the invitation. Ten years later, the historian Jürgen Osterhammel lectured “On the Time Horizons of History”. It’s quite possible that Jörg Hacker will speak at Merkel’s 70th birthday, perhaps about bacteria and science.