On 8 February 2003, at the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer turned directly to the US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. He said in English: Excuse me, I’m not convinced. The Defense Ministry’s history of the conference notes that the audience fell silent. Eight years later, Fischer used the line as the title of his memoir, „I am not convinced”. Der Irak-Krieg und die rot-grünen Jahre.
politics
Schmidt the Snout
In the 1950s Helmut Schmidt was a young Social Democrat member of the Bundestag. His sharp-tongued speeches soon earned him the nickname Schmidt-Schnauze, Schmidt the Snout. Schnauze is an animal’s muzzle, and in everyday speech a big mouth. As an expert on transport and defense, he fought fierce debates above all with Franz Josef Strauß. Schmidt later became federal chancellor.
You Know Me
On 1 September 2013 Angela Merkel faced her challenger Peer Steinbrück in the televised debate before the federal election. During the debate she said: Sie kennen mich ja … You know me, after all. A Belgian newspaper reported that she added that Germany had had four good years. In surveys published by Statista, about 81 percent called her competent in 2013. In 2021, after eight more years in office, almost 80 percent still did.
Blooming Landscapes
On 1 July 1990, the day of the currency union, Chancellor Helmut Kohl spoke on television about the eastern states. Durch eine gemeinsame Anstrengung wird es uns gelingen, through a joint effort we will succeed, in turning them schon bald wieder in blühende Landschaften, soon into blooming landscapes again, where it is worth living and working. In 1991 he said he was more convinced than ever that this would happen within three to four years. The phrase was later used ironically, and the journalist Klaus Wiegrefe wrote of Kohls Lüge von den blühenden Landschaften, Kohl’s lie of the blooming landscapes.
The Niche
In 1983 the West German journalist Günter Gaus described the GDR as a Nischengesellschaft, a society of niches. The niche, he wrote, is the place where people leave politicians, planners, propagandists and das Kollektiv, the collective, behind them. There they water the potted plants with family and friends, wash the car, play cards and talk. Eine besonders wichtige tiefe Nische sind der Freundeskreis und die Gespräche, die in ihm geführt werden. A particularly important deep niche is the circle of friends and the conversations held within it.
The Chancellor’s Private Life
As chancellor, Angela Merkel kept her private life protected. Her husband, Joachim Sauer, once explained his distance from her office: Meine Person steht in keinem Verhältnis zu der politischen Arbeit von Angela Merkel. My person has no relation to the political work of Angela Merkel. Since leaving office, she shares a little more. In 2026 she told the magazine Focus about her garden and about fried potatoes at ten at night.
Merz Offers Klingbeil the Du
At the end of March 2025, during the coalition talks, Lars Klingbeil appeared on the ARD talk show Caren Miosga. He reported that Friedrich Merz, then 69 years old, had offered him the du a few days earlier. Klingbeil described the relationship with care: Wir wollen gar nicht beste Freunde werden, aber ein Vertrauensverhältnis ist gerade dabei zu wachsen. We do not want to become best friends, but a relationship of trust is starting to grow. A few days later, a newspaper headline called the two men die Duz-Partner, the du partners.
Every Word on Record
Every word spoken in a plenary session of the German Bundestag goes into the Plenarprotokoll, the plenary record. The stenographers note everything from speeches to interjections, applause and objections. They relieve each other every five minutes. By the next working day the complete record of a debate is available. Members may correct the text of their speeches. Korrekturen dürfen den Sinn der Rede oder einzelner Teile nicht verändern. Corrections may not change the meaning of the speech or of any part of it.
The Deleted Phone
In 2019 and 2020 a committee of inquiry of the Bundestag examined the Defense Ministry’s use of outside consultants. In August 2019 the data on one of the official phones Ursula von der Leyen had used as defense minister was deleted. The ministry confirmed it. The Green member Tobias Lindner filed a criminal complaint on suspicion of Beweismittelvernichtung, destruction of evidence. On February 13, 2020, von der Leyen testified before the committee. She told the members that she had deleted her chats regularly.
A Party’s Report on Its Own Defeat
After the SPD’s defeat in the federal election of 2017, deputy party leader Olaf Scholz demanded a schonungslose Betrachtung der Lage, an unsparing look at the situation. There should be no more excuses in the search for causes, he said. The party leadership under Martin Schulz commissioned an outside working group to analyze the campaign. Its report appeared in June 2018 under the title Aus Fehlern lernen, learning from mistakes. “Die SPD ist in der Krise. In der womöglich tiefsten seit 1949.” The SPD is in crisis, possibly the deepest since 1949. The report says that crisis communication was not among the strengths of the Schulz team.