Friday, November 26th, 2021
Emotional farewell
Merkel wishes that for the Zapfenstreich
Due to the corona, it will be significantly smaller than planned, but that does not detract from the event: next Thursday there will be the big tattoo for Chancellor Merkel. Her selection of songs is already known – it gets surprisingly emotional.
The Angela Merkel era ends after 16 years. The Executive Chancellor apparently wants to make her farewell unusually emotional. According to “Spiegel” information, Merkel has already made her musical selection for the Bundeswehr’s big tattoo on Thursday in the courtyard of the Defense Ministry in Berlin.
Accordingly, she chose Hildegard Knef as the insert “For me it should rain red roses”. In addition to the German hymn “Great God, we praise you”, the staff music corps of the Bundeswehr is also supposed to rehearse the song “You forgot the color film”, with which Nina Hagen landed a hit in the GDR in 1974.
Due to the corona regulations, the tattoo for Merkel is taking place in a much smaller format than usual with around 200 guests. 2G plus applies, guests must be vaccinated or recovered and also submit a negative corona test. All 52 federal ministers from their time in government and other companions should be invited. As the Ministry of Defense announced, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is expected as a guest of honor. The usual reception in the Bendlerblock casino does not take place.
According to the current plan, the Chancellor will sit down and give a short speech, reports Der Spiegel. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will be Defense Minister until 2019, will probably not be able to come to Merkel’s farewell: that day, she invited heads of state to a South American summit.
In addition, Merkel is likely to miss the record for the longest term in office of a Chancellor in the Federal Republic. So far, Helmut Kohl has been allowed to call himself Federal Chancellor for the longest time. The CDU politician ruled from 1982 to 1998 for a total of 5869 days. On December 17, Merkel overtook Kohl. In all probability, the traffic light parties will prevent that. The SPD, Greens and FDP want to elect Olaf Scholz as Federal Chancellor in the week after December 6th.