Order of Merit
Angela Merkel is honored at Bellevue Palace
© Sean Gallup / Staff / Getty Images
News in April that moves us: Angela Merkel is honored at Bellevue Palace +++ New record for respiratory diseases
The most important news in the BRIGITTE ticker
What moves the world? What moves the BRIGITTE editors? In this ticker we summarize the most important news in April for you.
April 18, 2023
Angela Merkel receives Order of Merit
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in a special version last Monday evening. This is the highest German medal for personal achievements,as reported by the daily news. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier presented the former Federal Chancellor with the order at Bellevue Palace. “To be honored, Madam Chancellor, for your extraordinarily long term of office and for your extraordinary political life, during which you used the experience of the dictatorship so convincingly to strengthen democracy,” said Steinmeier.
As the first chancellor, she is also a pioneer for future generations, said Steinmeier. She had “reshaped the office as a woman and as an East German,” emphasized the Federal President. Although many also recognize the merits of the former Chancellor, several politicians have already expressed criticism, some from the ranks of the CDU. The left criticized, among other things, that Merkel had delayed the energy transition and that child poverty and social inequality had increased. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on the other hand, emphasized the governance in times of the pandemic and the handling of other crisis situations positively. Not many countries “survived the period as well as the Federal Republic,” he explained. Before Merkel, only the former Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (1954) and Helmut Kohl (1998) received this Cross of Merit.
April 14, 2023
Record numbers of sick leave due to respiratory infections
The number of people on sick leave due to respiratory infections in the first quarter of this year was the highest in five years. This is the result of an evaluation by the Barmer health insurance company’s Institute for Health System Research, as the editorial network Germany (RND) writes.
In the first three months of the current year, an average of 368 per 10,000 Barmer policyholders were unable to work due to respiratory diseases such as corona, flu or other infections. Compared to the beginning of 2021, this value has quadrupled. At that time, an average of 98 out of 10,000 insured persons reported sick with such infections.
Even compared to 2018, when an unusually strong flu epidemic was rampant, the numbers are higher this year. At that time the rate was 300 per 10,000 insured persons per week. The currently high number of infections is generally attributed to catch-up effects as a result of the corona pandemic, during which our immune system was not trained.
Even more news
That was the news in March 2023.
Sources used: RND, Tagesschau, ZDF