Angela Merkel: The Anaesthetist of the German Nation

Angela Merkel, ever the Machiavellian politician, realized early on in her time as Germany’s leader that we Germans are notoriously indecisive and conflict-averse. So she chose to become the anesthetist of the German nation.

Toughness pretended

At the same time, we want to feel cared for. And so we have entered into a political pact with her: “You pretend in your capacity as German Chancellor to solve our problems — and we pretend that you are ruling us with an iron fist.”

Officially, of course, the core statement of Merkelism is as follows: “Our citizens rightfully expect us to solve the problems that concern them.”

A do-nothing chancellor on the most critical issue

In her years in office since 2005, Angela Merkel benefited enormously from the economic legacy of her predecessor Gerhard Schröder. Completely unexpectedly, he turned himself into a much-needed courageous structural reformer when the performance of the German economy was slipping badly.

In hindsight, it is clear that Schröder’s actions gave Merkel the leeway to operate as lackluster and unprincipled on issues such as maintaining Germany’s infrastructure investments, education, government reform, the digital economy etc.

Germans blindsided

Now, many will ask: What’s there to complain about Mrs. Merkel? After all, Germans appeared to be doing (relatively) well, at least compared to virtually every other nation. 

Even Manager Magazin, a publication reputed to have a tough edge, predicted back in 2010 that we Germans were headed for a “golden decade,” not least because of the export boom.

Merkel: Soothing talk, no real action

Against this backdrop, it is especially revealing that Merkel, playing to her status as a rare politician trained as a scientist talked in clichés about the need to “promote innovation.”

So how about using her good offices to ensure that there would be much-needed innovation, so that Germany would remain competitive? Not so much.

Thus, instead of using the past decade to make ourselves fit for the future, we Germans — misled by Mrs. Merkel — have squandered many opportunities.

For example, as a nation, we have put virtually all our eggs in one basket in the automotive sector with diesel, and we are still clinging to it today, trying to sweep past mistakes under the carpet.

The “fast internet for all” hoax

To give another telling example: Despite the various Merkel governments’ grandiose announcements to have “fast internet for all,” we are lagging far behind such equally manufacturing-minded countries as South Korea.

Anyone who describes Germany’s internet as very fast should be ashamed. The fatal legacy of Deutsche Telekom, its insistence on copper cables for the so-called last mile to the home, continues to be the nation’s speed and modernity bottleneck.

Among other things, this obviously has significant business consequences for our highly decentralized small and medium-sized enterprises in the country.

Germany’s digital “self-disarmament”

Even so, we Germans like to talk about Industry 4.0 and adorn ourselves — just as if we were French — with having invented the term. And yet, we still lack the decisive steps needed to be truly prepared for this industrial future.

For example, the Federal Republic’s data infrastructure is too slow to keep pace with the future-oriented topic of autonomous driving. Nor can it counteract the rural exodus, although this is urgently needed due to the tense situation on the housing market in cities.

It should give us pause for thought as a nation that the Chinese, under their Communist Party leadership, are acting more intelligently and with greater foresight than we are.

Merkel’s governing style: Paralyze your opponents everywhere

Strictly speaking, Merkel always does just enough on issues to take the air out of her political opponents (whether within her party, the government or society.)

Despite this short-sighted, mainly self-interested approach, the pact that “la Merkel” has made with the German people still largely holds.

“Mutti” as a convenient caretaker

“Mutti” pretends to take care of everything, but mainly just beats around the bush. From a chancellor who is so firmly in the saddle and already so solidly established in office as she is, one should really expect much more.

Instead, she makes anesthesia — i.e., numbing the people — the basis of her MO in politics.

And, of course, for motivational purposes, Mrs. Merkel throws in an encouraging “we can do it!” every now and then on all sorts of topics.

The German proverbial Michel raises his head again

But as soon as this good news has been heard, the imagery of the proverbial German “Michel” enters into the poltical equation. This image describes a naïve, somewhat gullible everyman, often wearing a night gown and night cap.

He prefers to lean back in his bed, self-satisfied, indulging in a dream that things will be sorted out while he sleeps — without stepping on anyone’s toes, of course.

Merkel as Germanic kabuki theater

With so much Germanic kabuki theater, it is no wonder that the Merkel years are already blurring before our eyes. One wonders in amazement: Yes, what have we actually achieved?

Following the proven approach of the anaesthetist, only injections are given to this day, mostly without seriously addressing the actual problems.

Merkel may see herself as the ingenious, personified psychotropic drug of the German nation, who manages to keep everything calm and thereby leave everyone with an imaginary feeling of satisfaction.

It’s ultimately our own fault

However, we Germans should not cowardly seek to shift the responsibility for this onto the chancellor’s shoulders. There is no question that Merkel has used us, but we have used her even more. That is the essence of the Merkel sedative pact.

And while we deliberately allowed her to pull the wool over our eyes with regularity, we particularly enjoyed the fact that she did so with a face that signals not only innocence but also mediocrity.

“Past performance is no indication of future success”

In the end, the same applies to today’s self-obsessed and self-satisfied, Merkelized Germany as in the fund business: “Past performance is no indication of future success.”

For competitive reasons, the rest of Europe may be inclined to thank us for wasting the current decade. However, there will also be a rather rude awakening there.

Because contrary to all the talk about the martial German productivity steamroller, which is particularly prevalent among our larger European neighbors, we have not only considered ourselves a relative island of bliss, but have also acted accordingly, both internally and externally.

Europe loses too, due to Merkel’s constant punting

And as much as the British, French and Italians may rejoice that we Germans, under Merkel’s aegis, have been so complacent, they will be horrified by the economic consequences of this complacency at the EU level.

In the future, due to a lack of internal modernization, we Germans will not turn out to be the cash cow that virtually all of the EU27 are now counting on.

On closer inspection, Merkel’s style of leadership turns out to be a kind of Machiavellian-style politics, in which pretense takes center stage.

The SPD as Merkel’s key enabler

But it must also be noted that, after Schröder, the pragmatic power broker, the SPD proves to be the ideal governing partner for Merkel.

Come to think of it, today’s leadership elites of the SPD as well as those of the Greens are the true incarnation of the apolitical German Michel. They want everything for everyone, as if they were in a land of milk and honey, and they even try to outdo each other in the process.

No wonder the chancellor has an easy time with them. But this does not make Germany any more future-proof.

Editor’s note: This feature is based on a German-language op-ed that appeared in Germany’s Handelblatt on July 21, 2017