Angela Merkel’s memoir, “Freedom: Memoirs 1954–2021,” offers an account of her dealings with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Barack Obama, as well as the reasoning behind some of her most debated decisions as German chancellor. Published in Brazil by Planeta, the roughly 700-page book was written with her longtime adviser Beate Baumann.
One episode from Merkel’s youth captures the deliberate temperament that would define her political career. On the night the Berlin Wall opened in 1989, the 35-year-old quantum chemistry researcher first followed her usual routine, going to a sauna with a friend. Only afterward did she join the crowds crossing into West Berlin, returning home before dawn so she would not be late for work at the laboratory.
The memoir’s account of Merkel’s relationship with Putin is among its most vivid sections. Both leaders could speak the other’s language: Merkel had learned Russian in communist East Germany, while Putin had learned German during his time as a KGB officer in Dresden. Their direct exchanges allowed them to trade barbed remarks without interpreters, even as their meetings involved intense psychological contests.
Merkel recalls holding Putin’s gaze during what she describes as a “KGB test.” She also revisits a 2007 meeting in Sochi, where Putin brought his large black Labrador into the room, aware of her longstanding fear of dogs.
Her portraits of Trump and Obama differ sharply. Merkel depicts Trump as transactional, drawn to authoritarian methods and hostile to multilateral institutions. Obama, by contrast, became a valued ally, overcoming her initial reservations about his rhetoric during a visit to Berlin.
Merkel also defends contentious choices, including support for the Nord Stream gas pipeline and her opposition to fast-tracking Ukraine’s entry into NATO in 2008. Rather than offering a full mea culpa, the memoir presents those decisions as part of her approach to restraint and compromise. Its account of her record may disappoint readers seeking extensive self-criticism, but the diplomatic recollections provide the book’s strongest material.
Sources: Folha Mundo.