The title and publication date for Angela Merkel’s memoir have been revealed.
The former German chancellor’s Freedom, co-written with her advisor Beate Baumann,will be published this fall, St. Martin’s announced in a news release. The press says the book “offers a unique insight into the inner workings of power—and is a compelling plea for freedom.”
Merkel worked as a physicist and chemist in communist East Germany before going into politics in 1990, when she was elected to the German parliament. She led the centrist Christian Democratic Union of Germany before being elected chancellor of the country in 2005; she served in that position for more than 16 years.
In her book, St. Martin’s says, Merkel “talks about her childhood, youth, and studies in the GDR and the dramatic year of 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and her political life began. She also shares recollections and insights from her meetings and conversations with the world’s most powerful people.”
In a statement, Merkel said, “What does freedom mean to me? This question has occupied me my entire life. Of course, politically, because freedom needs democratic conditions; without democracy, there is no freedom, no rule of law, no protection of human rights. But this question also occupies me on another level. Freedom, for me, is finding out where my own limits are and pushing myself to those limits. Freedom, for me, is to never stop learning, to never stand still, to continue moving forward, even after leaving politics.”
Freedom is slated for publication on Nov. 26.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
