A Dutch theater has staged a "Wagnerian electro-opera" about German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a "woman whom nobody really knows." The play focuses on struggles she faced during her career, and her upcoming departure.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Nineties Productions
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A musical dedicated to Germany's Angela Merkel went on tour in the Netherlands on Friday, after premiering earlier this week in the central Dutch town of Utrecht.
Nineties Productions describes its spectacle as "a Wagnerian electro-opera" featuring the character of "the most influential woman of this moment in history."
Merkel is played by a male actor, Benjamin Moen, and the show features video clips, opera segments and dialogue.
The creators say they tried to piece together their image of Merkel by traveling to Germany, to the chancellor's childhood home, the Berlin supermarket where she does her grocery shopping, and the German parliament, the Bundestag. They also used biographical sources, political speeches, childhood memories and sources close to the German leader to show a "woman whom nobody really knows."
The 64-year-old German chancellor has been in power since 2005. Throughout her turbulent rule, she has maintained a strangely inconspicuous public image. She has pledged that her fourth term, set to expire in 2021, would be her last.
"Our generation grew up with her," the 31-year-old director Floor Houwink ten Cate said.
"When she leaves politics, it will be the end of an era," she was quoted as saying by Germany's DPA news agency. "And we are taken aback."
Angela Merkel: Conquerer of political rivals
Angela Merkel has long shown a knack for neutralizing or sidelining politicians who got in her way. This applies as much to members of her own party as to rivals in other parties.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/ANP/R. De Waal
'Kohl's girl' leaves moniker behind
Longtime Chancellor Helmut Kohl gave Merkel her first cabinet post and facilitated her rise. After losing the chancellorship in 1998, his onetime acolyte turned her back and that of their Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on him. Merkel, then CDU secretary general, said Kohl, who had accepted a cash donation from sources he refused to reveal, had hurt the party. The CDU moved on without him.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Altwein
Gerhard Schröder - end of a political career
Merkel was Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's undoing in the 2005 election, though his own vanity was also to blame. His Social Democrats (SPD) finished one point behind her conservative CDU/CSU alliance. On TV with Merkel and other party heads, Schröder insisted Germans had made clear they wanted him to stay. The others rebuffed his apparently absurd claim. She became chancellor. He quit politics.
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Frank-Walter Steinmeier - ever the partner
Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been Germany's foreign minister, serving under Merkel, for nearly four years when the Social Democrat challenged her in the 2009 election. Many people said the SPD's heavy defeat was because of his lack of a popular touch. But he bounced back and in 2013 returned as the country's top diplomat, again with Merkel as the boss. He became Germany's president in March 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Kembowski
Günther Oettinger - out of the way
Eliminating competitors doesn't always mean forcing them off the political scene. Merkel dispatched her party colleague and potential rival Günther Oettinger, premier of the state of Baden-Württemberg, to a top job in the European Commission in 2010. Oettinger had no track record in EU politics and even then was known for sticking his foot in his mouth. He is on his third position as commissioner.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Seeger
Roland Koch - left out in the cold
Roland Koch was known in some parts for his friendship with the Dalai Lama, in others for collecting millions of signatures to catapult the government's plans for dual citizenship. The state premier of Hesse was part of a clique of CDU men who never anticipated Merkel's rise, and then were sure they'd outlast her. Koch waited in vain to be offered a job in Berlin. In the end, she outlasted him.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Christian Wulff - an unfortunate president
Christian Wulff wasn't Merkel's first pick for president, but left in a pinch when Horst Köhler resigned in 2010, party leaders wouldn't agree to Ursula von der Leyen, now defense minister. The choice of Wulff, the CDU state premier of Lower Saxony who had been rumored to be unhappy in his position, came as a surprise to him, too. He resigned over corruption charges and was later acquitted.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Peer Steinbrück - right man, wrong time
Merkel had reached the peak of her career by the time the SPD decided Peer Steinbrück should run against her in the 2013 election. She was unchallenged in her party and had come to dominate managing the euro and debt crisis in Brussels. Steinbrück, a finance minister under Merkel and ex-state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, had the expertise to be chancellor, but he had little chance.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Friedrich Merz — back again
Friedrich Merz was ousted by Merkel as the head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary party in 2002. He ended up leaving the Bundestag in 2009 and later became the chair of the world's biggest wealth manager, BlackRock. When Merkel announced her decision to step down as the head of the CDU, Merz made a surprising return to the German political scene and threw his hat in the ring to replace her.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
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The play emphasizes the refugee crisis of 2015, with Merkel's famous statement "We can do this" in reference to Germany being able to handle the arrival of a very large number of refugees and migrants. It also shows the eurozone debt crisis, the apparent death of a united Europe and Merkel's clashes with Russia's Vladimir Putin, who is presented as a devil-like character.
"Merkel" is due to tour the Netherlands until mid-May.
A separate play dedicated to the chancellor, "Angela I" premiered in the Germany city of Bremen earlier this month.