Trained as a quantum chemist, Merkel spent her first 35 years living in Soviet-controlled East Germany, working at a state-run research centre until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Wonderful clips of Ronald Reagan calling for the wall to be pulled down, and then it actually happening, make plain why Merkel was prompted to move to the West and enter politics.
Her rise to power is carefully documented; the only woman in a male-dominated, often patronising environment.
A particularly vivid interview early in her political life is for a women’s magazine that only wants to talk about her makeup - or lack of it - with Merkel explaining why she likes to look the way she does, doing so with unexpected humour.
Merkel moved the conservative, male-dominated Catholic CDU party to the centre, resulting in the party having a wide sphere of influence.
“Crisis management has always been her forte, whether saving the Euro during the global financial crisis of 2009, keeping Europe together during the refugee crisis, or coping with the pandemic,” says Judy Dempsey of the think tank Carnegie Europe.
Weber shows Merkel’s impact through interviews with Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Tony Blair, along with a range of journalists including Christiane Amanpour and clips of Barack Obama, who was an outsider as a black president, just as Merkel was rare as a female leader.
Her caution shines throughout, except when she let a million migrants into Germany, with the resulting social, political and religious issues leading many to question her.
The documentary merely hints at the ambition that must have been behind her rolling of her mentor, former chancellor Helmut Kohl, and does not show any of the debates that led to her abolishing military conscription, or her acceptance of same-sex marriage.
It comes in at the end of all that, showing her having arrived at a set of values for her country which she lists when addressing Donald Trump, telling him America is welcome as Germany’s partner, given they share the same values. What a diplomat.
Merkel and Trump seem light years apart, his call to “build the wall” suggesting he had learned nothing from 40 years of the Berlin Wall.
Equally clear is the contrast with Putin - although despite their rudeness to her, Merkel found a way to relate to both.
In a world where totalitarianism is on the rise and democracy is under threat, Angela Merkel’s unique kind of leadership is an inspiration. Merkel is a beautifully crafted documentary.
★★★★★
