Angela Merkel’s farewell ceremony will be held to music in the Chancellery’s courtyard, in front of 200 handpicked guests. And as tradition dictates, Angela Merkel herself chose the three pieces that will be played on this occasion by the Bundeswehr fanfare.
A 100% German selection: Mutti does not forget that she is first and foremost a pastor’s daughter, she wants to hear an ecumenical hymn from the 18th century; she also offered a song by Hildegard Knef, a famous post-war actress and singer. And then From Hast der Farbfilm vergessen, translation : You forgot the color film, by Nina Hagen.
A hit released in 1974 which will therefore be played on the trumpet by the military. It was before the singer’s punk era, before her improbable makeup and hairstyles, before she became a cexuberant and theatrical haunt, star of the 80s.
The song, like its performer, does not really match the serious image of the Chancellor. But this choice is a strong nod from Mutti to his East German origins. Because this title was born in the GDR when the Chancellor was 20 years old. So obviously, like all Germans at the time, she sang it at the top of her voice with her friends. Even if she never dwelled on her past in Communist Germany, which she has often been criticized for. This choice is also a way of paying homage to East German culture, which has somewhat faded away with reunification.
Other editorial writers of the German press see in this choice a feminist criticism: throughout the song Nina Hagen accuses her lover of having forgotten the color film for the vacation photos. They draw a parallel with Angela, who throughout her career has been surrounded by domineering political males.
In any case, the critics agree on one point: finally, Angela lets go! the Tagesspiegel writing : “By choosing a song that many bellow at the kitchen table on the birthdays of the uncle of the family, the Chancellor once again testifies to the delicacy of her humor“.
The two women also know each other: they met in 1992 during a television program on drugs and drug therapy.
Merkel was then Minister for Women and Youth. There were several interlocutors on the set, which Nina Hagen leaves screaming: “It’s just a shit with a bunch of shit in here! I’m leaving so you can keep saying shit!“
Angela Merkel obviously did not hold it against him and dust off the genre. His predecessors were much more classic: in 2005, the social democrat Gerhard Schröder had opted for My Way, by Frank Sinatra and before him Helmut Kohl, in 1998, had chosen theOde to Joy by Ludwig van Beethoven against the backdrop of the old imperial cathedral in Speyer. Very European.
After this military ceremony, it is the week of December 6 that Angela Merkel will definitively hand over to her successor, Olaf Scholz.