Professor Yoder’s presentation on ‘The Presence of the Past in Angela Merkel’s Political Discourse’ was very insightful and brought about ideas I had never really given much thought to. I obviously know about Germany’s past in the World Wars, but had never thought much about how Germany handles their past in their current political era.
Professor Yoder focused her presentation on Angela Merkel, the current Chancellor of Germany who has been serving since 2005. Besides being the first female chancellor, and the first chancellor to have grown up in the former East Germany, something that really stands out about Merkel is that she was the first chancellor to be born after World War II, making the use of the past in her political speeches that much more interesting.
Merkel constantly refers to Germany’s past using memory politics, invoking or incorporating the past into a speech. Here she acknowledges the mistakes her country has made and how they have moved on and bettered themselves since then/how they are bettering themselves everyday. In her speeches, 67% of them invoke the German past, often including the war and the Holocaust. Some of her speeches includes sentences such as “only if Germany accepts its responsibility for the moral disaster in its history will it be able to build a humane future” and “it’s about people at the end of the day”. This is extremely interesting for many reasons, one because she was not alive during this era and two, that she is acknowledging, not defending, the past of Germany, something many leaders are not capable of.
Acknowledging and agreeing with your country’s mistakes is a fairly uncommon tactic. One student in the class asked if this could make Angela Merkel lose her support for being called anti-German. I personally think this tactic is prideful and empathetic for those Germany has affected, as opposed to disgraceful and anti-German. As Jack Macphee says in his post, an unapologetic leader who refuses or elects not to acknowledge their country’s past could leave a poor impression on other world leaders and members of the public. I think this is an issue our country is dealing with right now with an unapologetic leader who is leaving a poor impression on other leaders as well as the general public. I do wonder how other countries, including our own, would deal with memory politics in a more emotional, empathetic way, such as Merkel. I think in order to movie forward you have to acknowledge the issues and wrongdoings of the past, in order to better the future.
I hadn’t thought much about the name of this class “The Presence of the Past” before showing up to the first presentation, but I understand why it is called that now. Professor Yoder did an excellent job digging into the speeches of Angela Merkel and how Germany is using the presence to invoke the past. Through pictures, quotes, and humor, Professor Yoder shed light on this dense topic and made an excellent first presentation for this course!