Initially, she was rather ridiculed as an outsider, and yet Angela Merkel has enjoyed an unparalleled career. In 37 years, Angela Merkel transformed herself from a "girl" into one of the most influential politicians in the world, and photographer Herlinde Koelbl accompanied her on her journey. To mark the end of the Merkel era, this fascinating long-term project is now being published in book form.
Was it power that changed Angela Merkel so visibly or, quite profanely, time? From 1991 to 2021, Herlinde Koelbl portrayed the politician every year except for a brief interruption. She always created head and body portraits in front of a sober white background. But Koelbl not only took photographs, she also wanted to know more about the person and got closer to Angela Merkel with her questions than probably few others.
Although she has been in the spotlight for almost four decades, little is known about Angela Merkel in her private life. People know her husband, know that she likes Wagner operas, cooks down-to-earth food and spends her vacations hiking in South Tyrol. Everything about Angela Merkel seems to express this: This is about politics, not about me and my person. Perhaps that is what makes her so remarkable and extraordinary in a world where big egos seem to be a basic requirement or at least a common occupational disease.
But of course, 37 years in top politics did not leave Angela Merkel unscathed. The interviews with Herlinde Koelbel document how the young politician changed and had to change, what impact politics had on her private life and what she had to learn in order to survive politically. The otherwise reserved politician was surprisingly open with the photographer about her life and personal strategies for coping with the stresses and strains of her everyday life. While the young politician experienced withdrawal symptoms after just a few days of vacation in the 1990s, over time she became better and better at switching off and, above all, not letting things get to her. In contrast to others, Merkel avoided unnecessary battles and saw herself primarily as a problem solver; others should think about her historical role.
One moment that will certainly go down in the history books is 2015 and Merkle's decision to open the borders to refugees. "It's part of being a politician to be insulted from time to time. That doesn't bother me now," Angela Merkel told Herlinde Koelbl. But she was obviously very upset to be treated with hostility because she showed "a friendly face" in an emergency situation.
Over the years, Herlinde Koelbl has succeeded in creating a documentary portrait that is as fascinating in photographic terms as it is in human terms. The fact that the two women share a special relationship becomes clearer from page to page and makes this heavyweight volume so much more than a mere collection of portraits.
Angela Merkel was not taken seriously for a long time, perhaps because of her age, perhaps because she was a woman. "Many people didn't notice her ambition and underestimated her," recalls Koelbel. "She behaved like an excellent chess player, analyzing and learning. She thought in larger time frames, like a strategist. As early as 1996, when she was Environment Minister, she told me that she would 'put her political opponent Gerhard Schröder in the corner at some point. I still need time for that, but one day it will happen. I'm already looking forward to it." If you remember the elephant round after Schröder's botched election, you almost read lines like this with schadenfreude.
"Angela Merkel had her ego under control. The men didn't always have hers," the photographer recalls, but Merkel also knew how to pull strings, send others ahead, tactic and attack. And many things were annoying to her, including Herlinde Koelbel's project at first, and she openly admitted to the photographer: "I was anything but happy when you showed up at the door again. I thought: What's all this nonsense? The book won't be published for (...) years, you have to appear in the press today. But then I realized that I suddenly asked myself: Has Ms. Koelbl actually been around this year? So I realized that I was obviously vain enough to find your project interesting. Today I have a kind of corporate identity associated with it."
In fact, this analogy is quite apt; the book "Angela Merkel. Portraits 1991-2021" reads like a kind of photographic design manual on Angela Merkel, while at the same time providing unexpectedly personal insights into the life of this extraordinary politician. Few "global leaders" have been in office for as long as Angela Merkel, and none have been documented in such a vivid way and for such a long time. Herline Koelbel worked on this project for 30 years, in secret since 2009; nobody knew that she met the Chancellor every year. Now, at the end of Angela Merkel's term of office, the photographer is lifting the veil and allowing the public to participate in this project and the friendship that developed from it.
It was not the only long-term project for Herlinde Koelbl, who has already received several awards for her extensive work, but for readers this project is particularly fascinating because it adds completely new facets to a face that is so incredibly familiar to Germans.
The book "Angela Merkel. Portraits 1991-2021" will be published by Taschen Verlag on November 15.
Book presentations take place in the following cities:
November 24, 2021, Literaturhaus, Stuttgart // November 30, 2021, Literaturhaus, Munich // December 9, 2021, Goethe-Institut, Brussels
Angela Merkel. Portraits 1991-2021
Herlinde Koelbl, Taschen Verlag
Hardcover, 30 x 30 cm, 2.68 kg, 248 pages
50,- Euro
Die Zeit presented Herlinde Koelbel's pictures to people who had personal dealings with Angela Merkel over the decades and recorded their comments and memories. You can read them at Zeit Online.
You can find more photo projects here ...