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Bravo, Chancellor Merkel

A Timely Commitment to America

An Editorial by Gabor Steingart

Expectations for Angela Merkel's address before the US Congress were great, but the German chancellor fulfilled them. In contrast to her usual performance, Merkel demonstrated in her historical speech that she is capable of conveying both vision and confidence. She also gave a timely commitment to America.

This speech was bigger than her entire chancellorship to date. In plain view, German Chancellor Angela Merkel came out of the shell that has surrounded her for many years, in which she has sought to conceal her political face. But on this Tuesday in Washington, that face was both recognizable and attractive.

At home, Merkel has been spending much of her time addressing the concept of "social justice," which, in terms of her daily routine, is really just political patronage. But in Washington Merkel got straight to the point: the concept of freedom.

It is the value of all values, the king of values in a sense, and Merkel herself was caught up in its historic momentum on the day the Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago. "Where there was once only a dark wall, a door suddenly opened," she said.

She acknowledged the "power of freedom" as the central driving force of Western societies and her own life. "There is still nothing that inspires me more, nothing that spurs me on more and nothing that fills me with positive feelings than the power of freedom," she said.

She stood before the assembled senators and congressmen as a woman whose confession is rooted in the experience of oppression. More clearly than any other head of state, she voiced her approval of the "American dream," the belief in the impossible. She seemed undaunted by the notion that some at home would find her tone a little too chummy. For Merkel, it was like going to confession.

A Speech with Powerful Clarity

Whereas Konrad Adenauer, the only other chancellor ever afforded the honor of addressing both houses of the US Congress, vaguely mentioned an affinity between Germans and Americans in terms of their "shared interests," Merkel's speech was more to the point. She described her view of the trans-Atlantic relationship as one of "shared values" characterized by a "common idea of the individual and his inviolable dignity." It was this clarity that made her speech so powerful.

In delivering such a powerful address, Merkel left behind both the musty, often vassal-like German-American friendship of the 1950s and the seesaw politics of her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, who erratically shifted back and forth between Moscow, Paris and Washington. She was grateful, demanding and positive. Merkel, of all people, not exactly known for her political courage, brought the Americans something they have lacked recently: confidence.

She spoke about the assurance that good would prevail over evil in the end, even if this did not appear to be the case in the current conflict with Islamic terrorists, and about the hope that a joint effort by Europeans and Americans could possibly prevent or at least curb global warming after all.

And she pointed out the certainty that Europe and America belong together, because, as she said, this friendship is not based solely on friendship, but on a common history and common interests.

A Warm Thank You

Merkel spoke of nothing less than a timely commitment to America, a country that has been so many things for Germans throughout its history: a refuge and a government that has imposed unreasonable demands, a liberator and an occupying power, a trading partner and a warden, and a hegemonic power, albeit a benevolent one.

America has brought freedom to the Germans on two occasions. The first time was 60 years ago, when it helped force Hitler's Wehrmacht into unconditional surrender. And the second time was 20 years ago when, after the demise of the Soviet Union, the American superpower moved back across the Atlantic, behaving fairly and peacefully. Merkel thanked the Americans on both counts. The fact that she included, in her expression of gratitude, a remembrance of the victims of World War II was more than a routine gesture. Indeed, Merkel was as clear as possible when she said: "Whoever threatens Israel also threatens us."

With this speech, the German chancellor did her generation a service that cannot be underestimated. The symbols of the renewed German-American friendship are no longer the soldiers posted at Checkpoint Charlie, but online bloggers, iPhone users, the trans-Atlantic mourning of Michael Jackson's death, politicians like Barack Obama and, now, Merkel.

Bravo, Madam Chancellor!