Angela Merkel, with Beate Baumann, "Freedom"

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Angela Merkel, with Beate Baumann, "Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021" (2024)

 

The Guardian 서평

 

 

'활동적인 지성과 양심'이 이 책을 읽으면서 줄곧 받은 Angela Merkel에 대한 내 인상이다. 난민 문제에 관해서도 나는 그녀를 높이 평가한다 -- 그녀의 난민 정책 자체에 대해 말하는 건 아니다. 물리학 박사로 물리화학 연구소에서 일하던 그녀가 네 번이나 독일 연방총리로 선출된 것은 그럴 만해서였다. 정책 면에서 그녀 자신이 후회하는 것들도 물론 있다.

 

본문만 685쪽인 이 책을 꽤 재밌게 읽었다. Prologue에서는 이 책을 쓰게 된 한 동기를 읽을 수 있다:

 

Back then [in 2015], in the night between September 4 and 5, I had decided not to turn away the refugees coming from Hungary at German-Austrian border. I experienced that decision, and above all its consequences, as a caesura in my chancellorship. There was a before and an after. That was when i undertook to describe, one day when i was no longer chancellor, the sequence of events, the reasons for my decision, my understanding of Europe and globalization bound up with it, in a form that only a book would make possible. I didn't want to leavethe further description and interpretation just to other people. (p.1)

 

뉴욕 타임즈 서평에서:

[I]n “Freedom,” Merkel reaffirms her liberal ideal that moderation is a “precondition for the success of democratic parties.” She also conveys an unwavering commitment to the convictions by which she governed: the universality and inviolability of individual human dignity, and the boon of an open, interconnected world, built on shared prosperity. 

 

본문에서:

 

[O]n January 1, 1977, the Charter 77 Declaration was published in Prague, and on January 7 it appeared in numerous European newpapers. This declaration came from the Czech opposition, organazied  around the dramatist Václav Havel, the philosopher Jan Patočka, and the former foreign minister Jiří Hájek, and it spoke out against human rights violations by the communist regime. (p. 74)

 

"Examination of the mechanism of decays with singular bond breaking and calculation of their coefficient of reaction rate on the basis of quantum mechanical and statistical methods": that was the title of my doctoral thesis. (p. 93)

 

Why the CDU [Christian Democratic Union] -- for me, and for our country? ... [I]n my speech ... this is how I set out my vision:

 

    I want a CDU that will develop the ethics of social captialism within a globalized context. I want a CDU that can reconcile economy and humanity even within this new context.

 

    [...]

 

    I want a CDU that advocate for Germany which is a tolerant country among others, that neither puts on airs nor hides its light under a bushel.

(pp. 251-2)

 

I also mentioned measures at the European and international level, including ensuring that refugees were fairly distributed throughout Europe and combating the issues that led the refugees to flee their homes. In addition, I stressed: "I say quite simply: Germany is a strong country. The attitude with which we approach these things has to be: we have done so much -- we can do this! We can do this, and if something stands in our way it has to be overcome, it has to be worked on. The federal power will do everything in its power -- together with the states, together with the municipalities -- to achieve exactly that.

    If, at that time, someone had told me that "We can do this" -- those four commonplace words -- would be used to reproach me for weeks, months, and years to come, I would have looked to them in disbelief and said: I beg your pardon? (p. 482)

 

Germany is a country of immigration. Our population development and the associated shortage of skilled workers make regular immigration unavoidable. (p. 510)

 

For me, the purpose and goal of my political work lay in enabling the individual to lead a successful life, The values that guided me came from Article 1 of our constitution: Human didnity is inviolable. These values were universal. (p. 531)

 

Had I given enough priority to the issue of climate protection ...? ... In 2005, around 10 percent of the electricity supply came from renewable energy. Since then, [during my term of office as chancellor] that share had increased to significantly higher than 40 percent. (p/ 590)