Angela Merkel and the rhombus – a gesture that will probably always be associated with the ex-Chancellor. But how did it happen? Now Merkel is giving insights.
Berlin – The hands are held in front of the stomach, thumb and forefinger form a diamond. The Merkel diamond. This gesture is characteristic of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. When you think of the CDU politician, you probably quickly have this image in your head: monochrome blazer – and the diamond, which even has its own Wikipedia entry. But what is the gesture actually about? How did that happen? Now Merkel made her own statement.
Angela Merkel on diamond: “If you don’t know exactly where to put your hands”
In the Merkel documentation “Lauf der Zeit”, the ex-Chancellor now talks about the gesture. “It doesn’t mean anything. That is stability,” says Merkel. “If you stand and don’t know exactly where to put your hands, that’s how it developed for me.” At first she didn’t think much about it. “Then it caught my eye and I took it somewhere as a symbol.” A symbol that will probably always be associated with Angela Merkel – and that even Olaf Scholz picked up on during the election campaign.
In the past, Merkel repeatedly commented on the diamond. “It was always the question of where to put the arms,” she said in 2013. “And that’s how it came about.” Her gesture shows “perhaps a certain love of symmetry,” Merkel told the women’s magazine Bridget. In 2009 she said to the writer Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre: “This posture is the position in which I automatically keep my upper body upright.”
Angela Merkel: What is the chancellor doing now?
After the federal elections in 2021, Merkel withdrew from politics. Since her farewell at the end of the year, the chancellor has hardly appeared in public. Most recently, she was a guest at the federal presidential election on February 13. The CDU parliamentary group in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had nominated Merkel for the election. Otherwise, the Chancellor is rarely seen, most recently there was only a snapshot that shows Merkel shopping.
Merkel wants to take a break after 16 years as chancellor. She wanted to think about “what really interests me,” she said on the sidelines of a visit to Johns Hopkins University. “After that maybe I’ll try to read something, then my eyes will close because I’m tired, then I’ll get some sleep and then we’ll see where I show up.” Now she can be seen on television. The film “Angela Merkel – In the course of time” has been running in the ARD media library since February 20. The first will also show him on February 27 at 9:45 p.m. in the main program. (as)
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