The German people regularly go through astonishing quick retraining, and soon it will be that time again. Should there be less thunderstorm than feared in the delta autumn, and thus worried, at the end of the first female chancellor in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, “82 million national coaches” or “82 million virologists” will finally become again “82 million Merkel connoisseurs”.
Sat. 1 has already put some of them together in a generous casting, as usual, for 105 net minutes of documentary about the “Merkel era”. In addition to frequent contact persons for the Chancellor, such as the former Minister Annette Schavan and the current Minister Helge Braun, the usual television chat room staff is represented, from Sophia Thomalla to Stefan Verra, according to the overlay “Author and body language expert”, so you can immediately guess where the journey is going .
She walks in the direction of the refrigerated shelf, and the expert Verra explains euphorically that this is probably an event – Merkel as projection and God Chancellor, who then, suddenly very human, “fetches the milk as we fetch it”. Can you believe it, no, it is you at all to grasp, so the Chancellor, not the milk?
“In any case, she’s not a panic,” says Gloria von Thurn und Taxis
Yes and no. The first image in this documentary by producer Tom Gamlich is a Merkel mosaic, a profile made up of countless photographs. This look is reminiscent of a real Merkel’s election poster from 2013, and it can also otherwise be understood as an indication that this film will remain rather friendly in its basic tone. The whole documentation turns into a leafing through the picture book of, no, our you-know-me-Chancellor. This scrolling begins with Merkel’s priceless do-you-only look in the “elephant round” on election evening 2005, in which Schröder verbally rioted in a very wonderful way shortly before the check-out. Schröder, “you could say: He was in a good mood”, says the flagship native of the Rhineland, Wolfgang Bosbach, and his face shines even more with joy than his somehow dazzling jacket.
All hits from Merkel’s chancellorship are shown and commented on, including the suspicious characters that have accumulated among the people in 16 years. “In any case, she’s not a panic,” says Gloria von Thurn und Taxis of Merkel’s often vaunted stoicism. “There are people in politics who are capable of making friends, Angela Merkel is one of them,” says Annette Schavan with something that looks like real affection. “Ms. Merkel goes without talking, and she prefers to go alone,” says Reinhold Messner, who has often gone hiking with Merkel, although the “with” according to Messner’s sentence needs to be revised.
A few full sentences of bullshit can never be avoided in such private television documentaries (Marc Bator: “Yes, nice, Merkel in the supermarket!”), But they do not predominate in this case, which makes the result worth seeing despite the fact that it is very friendly. Also worth seeing because you realize that as a normal German you have heard more from this Chancellor in 16 years than from an average great-uncle in your own family.
You can see Angela Merkel coping with male, human and other crises since 2008, when the constant stress began with the chapter on banks. The film is always about the “Merkel the man”, it does not provide a synthesis in the political sense. Hardly a word on how and in what way this country would have been proactively shaped by this Chancellor in recent years. But if it bothers you, it is less to reproach the producers of this documentation than the person in contemporary history portrayed by them.
“The Merkel Era – Faces of a Chancellor”, Tuesday, 8.15 p.m., Sat 1.