“That is the main task,” he said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss policy publicly. John C. Kornblum, a former United States ambassador to Germany and a close observer of German affairs for more than four decades, sees in Ms. Merkel a chancellor who “knows more or less how far she can go with the German public” in terms of propping up European unity. She “obviously has more sophisticated thoughts than she expresses” and yet “no internal commitment” to the European Union, Mr. Kornblum said. “Her basic goals are national,” he added.
It is Germany’s paradox that its European neighbors and American friends are wary of both its dominance and its reluctance to lead. As the fourth-largest economy in the world, known for its strong midsize companies that out-engineer competitors, Germany must look out for fresh trade opportunities. Yet that swiftly generates fear that Germans, seeing European markets shrink, will stake out richer ground in the United States, Latin America and Asia.
For her part, Ms. Merkel is clearly fascinated by foreign travel. As an East German, she could explore only the Soviet bloc and would have been permitted to go west for good only as a 60-year-old pensioner. She nurtures export opportunities; phalanxes of business figures have accompanied her on six trips to China, where she always lingers long enough to explore a different province outside Beijing. (By contrast, French news reports last spring noted that President François Hollande’s first visit to China included a perfunctory 36 hours in the capital.)
Ms. Merkel is also a keen observer — her eyes scan every room and interlocutor — and she soaks up knowledge that peppers her speeches: South Korea spends 4 percent of its gross domestic product on research and development, while European Union countries lag behind their goal of 3 percent; Indonesia skillfully paid down its debt; China might soon view Germany only as the birthplace of Beethoven.
“The world is not sleeping,” Ms. Merkel warns, while noting Germany’s shrinking place in it: if you divide 100 people based on world population, she notes, “only a bit more than one would be a German.”
In delivering these points, she frequently stumbles over her lines. But Germans, generally unsusceptible to rhetorical flash given their 20th-century history, find this sympathetic, noted Christoph Schwennicke, editor of Cicero, the magazine that last year compared Ms. Merkel to a mother hen who would be sitting in her nest for some time. (Presenting a different image, the newsmagazine Der Spiegel’s current cover depicts her as an echo of another self-willed German, Catherine the Great of Russia.)
Mr. Schwennicke cited six reasons for Ms. Merkel’s longevity: she does not overestimate herself, reads people and situations well, cares for power but not its trappings, inspires loyalty in good people, tries not to give away her intentions, and is quick.
She is also presiding over a country that, since the World Cup here in 2006, has felt more assertive. Young Germans in particular are unafraid to fly or wave their national flag. Ms. Merkel is the only chancellor they have known since they were 18 and could first vote, and her party has clearly counted on this appeal.
“She has really done a lot,” said Dennis Duermann, 25, at the Düsseldorf rally. Mr. Duermann, who is half-Canadian and has lived in New York, sees Germany, with its welfare system and greater social equality, as the best country to live in — and credits Ms. Merkel. “She doesn’t try to make big speeches,” he said. “She just gets on with it.””
Quoted from: New York Times, 14.09.2013, Alison Smale, A Campaign in Germany, an Influence Far Beyond It.