Angela Merkel’s “rhomboid” hand gesture is her most recognizable trademark.
Berlin:
Hands in front of stomach, thumbs and fingertips touching to form a diamond shape – Angela Merkel’s “rhomboid” hand gesture is her most recognizable trademark.
The gesture has its own Wikipedia page, its own emoji, “<>“, and the longtime German leader was even immortalized in this pose at the famous Madame Tussauds wax museum in London. London.
But “Merkel-Raute”, as she is known in German, became her signature largely by accident – born to a shy Merkel in front of the camera and not knowing how to pose for a magazine photo shoot. Stern magazine in 2002.
Then head of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) but three years away from being elected chancellor for the first time, Mrs Merkel “didn’t know what to do with her hands”, photographer Claudia Kempf said remember later.
Kempf told the Rheinische Post in 2009: “She lets them hang loosely beside her to make her look a bit out, or she stitches them together. I told her, ‘You look too similar. a pastor’s daughter’,” Kempf told the Rheinische Post in 2009.
A few months before the German election in 2013, Merkel offered her own explanation for how the gesture came to be.
“It’s about the question of where to put your arm,” said the trained physicist, adding that the rhombus also shows “a certain love of symmetry”.
‘Personal religion’
At the time of that interview, Merkel was campaigning for a third term in office.
The whole parliament put forward demands for renewal in the German federal election, but her CDU party decided on a very personalized campaign.
A 70 meter wide, 20 meter high (230 feet x 66 feet) billboard has been erected near Berlin’s central station with a giant image of Merkel’s diamond, made up of more than 2,000 photographs of hands, with the slogan “Germany’s future in good hands”.
Rival Social Democrats (SPDs) criticized what they called “empty personality cults” around Ms Merkel, while the Greens lamented: “If this is politics, we fell very low.”
But the woman affectionately nicknamed “Mutti” (the mummy) won the election by a landslide a few weeks later, with the Merkel diamond becoming “perhaps one of the most recognizable hand gestures in the world”, according to the British Guardian newspaper.
This gesture has also been likened to a bridge, a protective roof, and even a sign made among Illuminati members to identify themselves.
Jochen Hoerisch, a communications expert at the University of Mannheim, told AFP: “I believe the Merkel diamond was initially accepted unconsciously.
“But once it was noticed by the public, it was consciously used by the prime minister as a brand.”
Political tool
Even in the twilight of Merkel’s political career, the gesture was once again in the spotlight during this year’s election campaign when SPD prime ministerial candidate Olaf Scholz applied it on the cover of the magazine. .
Scholz used the gesture during a photo session for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung – part of his strategy to position himself as Merkel’s true continuing candidate, as opposed to Armin Laschet, who challenged his party’s party. Mrs. Merkel.
This statement about Mrs. Merkel’s legacy provoked a backlash from the CDU and even from Mrs. Merkel herself, who took great pains to point out that there were “huge differences” between her and Scholz.
During a parliamentary debate, Laschet told Scholz: “You can’t go around making diamond signs and talk like Saskia Esken,” the co-leader of the SPD, who represents the left wing of the party. .
But the Social Democrats’ plan worked, and Scholz’s party won a shock election victory over Mrs. Merkel’s conservatives.
In particular, many older voters defected from the CDU to vote for Scholz, who will be formally elected by parliament on Wednesday to replace her as Germany’s next chancellor.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from the syndication feed.)
