LETTER FROM BERLIN

For fans of German politics, 2024 is shaping up to be a newsworthy year, with the publication of the memoirs of two major figures from recent decades: Angela Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble. Merkel's book won't be published until the fall. Schäuble's memoirs, however, has just been published, under the title Erinnerungen: Mein Leben in der Politik ("Memories: My Life in Politics," Klett-Cotta, 656 pages, €38).

Schäuble, who died on December 26, 2023, at the age of 81, had an exceptional career. It had a lengthy duration: He was first elected as a member of parliament in 1972 and sat in the Bundestag for 51 years, breaking records. He held key ministerial positions at critical moments, serving as minister of the interior during German reunification and minister of finance during the eurozone crisis.

And Schäuble's professional fortunes were also notable for a missed opportunity: Having spent half a century at the heart of power, Schäuble, who served the two chancellors Helmut Kohl (1982-1998) and Angela Merkel (2005-2021), never became chancellor himself. He was weighed down by the cumbersome legacy of Kohl, whom he had dreamed of succeeding, and overshadowed by the skill of Merkel, who forever thwarted his ambitions.

Even before the book's release on Monday, April 8, a passage revealed three days prior by the weekly magazine Stern made headlines across German media. The passage concerned an event that took place in the fall of 2015. As hundreds of migrants fleed the war-torn Middle East and entered Europe, Merkel decided not to close Germany's borders to them. Within the majority party, the decision aroused strong opposition, particularly from the highly conservative Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU). Schäuble writes that he was approached at the time by Edmund Stoiber, ex-chairman of the CSU, with a specific goal in mind: "He wanted to induce me to overthrow Merkel so that I could become chancellor myself. (...) I categorically refused."

In one of his last TV interviews, in 2022, Schäuble admitted that "some people wanted Merkel to leave" in 2015. But he said nothing more. That he would divulge Stoiber's name is not without its poignancy. In January 2002, Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for less than two years, had announced during breakfast at the Bavarian's home that she was letting him run for chancellor on behalf of both parties. Seven months later, Stoiber lost out to Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder, who was re-elected for a second term. With the powerful CSU leader defeated, his young CDU counterpart now had free rein to run as a candidate the next time around − which she did, winning in 2005 the post she had given up running for three years earlier. That Stoiber would foment a putsch more than a decade later to unseat Merkel speaks volumes about how, in politics, resentment lingers.

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