Merkel: curbs on freedoms remind me of East Germany

ANGELA MERKEL, the German chancellor, said yesterday that the drastic limits placed on people’s freedoms to curb the coronavirus earlier this year had weighed heavily on her, bringing back memories of life in surveillance-riddled East Germany.

On the eve of the 30th anniversary of German reunification, Mrs Merkel told the RND newspaper group she was acutely aware of the sacrifices she was asking of Germans when the country went into lockdown in March.

“That I had to tell people they could only be out in the street in a single household or just two persons at a time, that no events could take place, that children could not visit their parents in care homes – these were serious restrictions.”

A pastor’s daughter who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in the communist German Democratic Republic ( GDR), Mrs Merkel, 66, said she reflected a lot on her childhood and youth when making those tough calls in the early days of the pandemic.

“My background has shaped me,” she said, recalling “the longing for freedom during life in the GDR”. But the veteran leader said her experiences in former East Germany also prepared her for difficult times. “We learnt to improvise and we always managed well despite many shortages. These are skills that are useful today too,” she said.

Germany is planning muted celebrations to remember the historic unification of the communist East with the capitalist West, as the nation battles an uptick in coronavirus infections.

The Berlin Wall fell on Nov 9 1989, paving the way for the formal reunification of Germany on Oct 3 1990.