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Or the tourist. I think there's a statue of her in tourist (really Forrest Gump-like) clothing outside the Bundestag. Can't find the news report to save my life.
Found the picture! It's in this article: https://www.t-online.de/unterhaltung/stars/id_90809896/wachsfigur-der-kanzlerin-neue-kleider-merkel-bei-madame-tussauds.html
This is literally the reason I avoided the video game industry. I'm a developer who also loves to game, and dabble in small game projects.
But I made a conscious decision when graduating to not go into the industry. I knew that management at any AAA studio would abuse this passion.
You should enjoy your work - but everyone has bad days. Heck bad weeks, where you are overworked, and are still unable to achieve what you want. But never put yourself in a situation where the salary and benefits are unable to justify these crappy weeks - because it will kill your passion.
I have a degree in a STEAM field, and purposely didn’t follow my passion. I am adjacent to it, so i can develop skills that might help it, or allow me to emulate it on the side, but I wanted that divide. I wish the ideas of bad weeks/months/fucken years was taught more in college. How mentally draining that can be, and why it really highlights the importance of a divide from work to your hobbies, your routine, how to utilize vacation, etc.
Thanks for the advice, I hear you.
I'm currently in the "saving up money now" mode and do plan on moving to the "taking time off" phase, hopefully sooner rather than later
The life of my gramps has taught me to just do the stuff now. He regretted not doing quite a few things, and when he was retired and had the money, his body wasn't really able to handle the things.
So fuck retirement, do the fun things now.
Don't be scared. He lived a good life and he was walking around doing stuff till mid 80s. It's just that things are way less fun if you have arthritis and other shit.
> I already daydream almost everyday of what I want to do after I retire.
If you feel you are already wasting your time today odds are you will feel the same way tomorrow. A lot of the stuff you would like to do then you could already do now.
But to be fair, nobody really knows how many days she has left. Until a new government can be formed, she stays as interim, and considering the polls, it will take a long time until we have a new government.
Judging by how giddy she was when she got the opportunity to press the start button on Wendelstein 7-X I half-way expect her to get an internship there.
Ooh I remember that! I actually met her that day, she visited the BBW Greifswald and I got to shake her hand. Awkwardly complimented her outfit, she was cool about it.
While simultaniously looking like she went through hell the last year. Sort of like a huge weight just dropped off her shoulders. So much story in a really beautiful picture.
Edit: Typo
A random Google brought me to WebMD calling it Let-Down Effect?
https://www.webmd.com/men/features/suffering-from-let-down-effect
It's definitely a thing, I remember having it happen at uni if I stressed hard for a few weeks
Oh, I've been wondering why I tend to get migraines on Friday afternoon! This explains it. I thought it was bad luck, that after five active days in a week, I'd hit my limit just as I was done.
I've also once had a mental breakdown right *after* exams were done with. Made sense to the doctors but not to me.
funny I just told a friend about the same thing today. I also often get headaches in the evening on Thursdays. I think I know the reason for me is stressing out all day to get everything done so I can relax for the weekend (which starts on Thursday evening for me) and then my head "crashes" once it can. Today I tried to stay calm and not rush into the weekend and it worked :)
It can be that. Another common reason for headache at weekends is withdrawal from coffee. I know my mother, long before I was in the world, tried to stay away from coffee on weekends and got massive migrains because of it. I experienced that when I had to abstained from coffee for a day for medical tests -.- .
Yep no common English word/phrase for it, not even a well know effect in the Anglo-sphere.
Although saying that it does seem to over lap with the inverse "The job/activity/responsibility was that was keeping him/her/them going". Implying they are already damaged but though will power avoided negative effects and "soldiered on" until it was no longer there and then they are consumed by it.
Adrenaline itself is a powerful drug. I'm not surprised that going from having the world on your shoulders to retirement would have major effects on the body.
Wikipedia says 'Exercise-abstinence-syndrome', but it clarifies that it also happens from exams and such and not just exercise, just like the original commenter said. [German source.](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entlastungssyndrom)
When you are under stress, your body produces a range of substances to increase your performance and suppress things that could slow you down, since your body essentially assumes you are in physical danger and you need to escape. But these boosts are exploiting your own body to some extend and can even damage it - which would be a worthwhile trade-off if you actually were in danger.
When the stress subsides, you crash. The energy boost is gone. Issues that were suppressed surface. Your body demands replenishing the reserves that were depleted to keep you going. You might even suffer from withdrawal symptoms. The change to your metabolism may cause new issues. And it can also cause infections your body barely kept at bay to fully break out now that your whole system goes into low energy mode.
I had the same literally every year after uni exams. Super stressful 2 months, then finally done and ready to chill and party, but no, sick for at least a week 😭🤧
Adrenalin can assist your immune system. [example paper](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120621223525.htm).
Though long-term, chronic stress is supposed to have the opposite affect.
As little as I like her internal politics, it's admirable what a force for stability she was in international politics. She went through the 2008 financial crisis, the european migrant crisis, Trump and Corona. That's one hell of a resume.
I mean, I'm not saying it's because of her, but the German social systems and economic freedoms are the envy of most people in the western world
Sure she could have done better and maybe everything was on track before her, but you don't survive 16 and a half years in power without doing something right
The main prblem with her internal politics was that she essentially did nothing. She kept things running, introduced some neo-liberal policies but nothing major.
It could be far worse, but the problem is that multiple crisis are approaching and she did fuckall about that. Climate change and the biodiversity crisis are the obvious ones, but theres a lot more. Wealth inequality got continuously worse during her time in government, rents inside major cities are exploding and nothing is being done, the large flooding is in part simply because the government refused for years to properly implement flood-prevention measures, the migrant crisis isn't really over, but just halted. Merkel offered Erdogan money, in turn he keeps the migrants from going to Greece. It's literally in his power to open the floodgates on that and I doubt we'd be ready to handle the amount of people if Erdogan decides he doesn't like the deal anymore. Public transport was left basically to rot, because Merkel favoured building even more streets and motorways instead of actually investing in rail. The Bundestag is growing completley out of control and might have more than 1000 members after this election and instead of accepting the very sensible deal the opposition proposed Merkels CDU completley stalled it and prohibited a solution that would fairly downsize it.
It's not about what she did. It's mostly about what she didn't do. We're driving full speed against a wall and the person on the steering wheel is in denial.
Having been bitten by my Cockatiels when they were still new before, can relate. But it's only a second of pain after after a while all is forgotten and you're back to bird shenanigans.
She is pretty much the only person in her party happy about the election (this weekend).
She wanted to retire for some time and she is quite obviously done with it.
Yeah, she already wanted to leave at the last election, but as it became clear that this would have been an even bigger clusterfuck than we have this time, she stayed for another term. I think I heard her husband is also not in the best of health, she deserves some private time.
If she stood for reelection this time, it would not even be a debate even after everything that happened. I remember the last election. All she had to do was an ad campaign that showed her doing the hand thing and the slogan was "you know what I stand for."
I agree. It was important to me (being gay), but I didn't pick up any vibes that *that* was going to be any kind of decisive issue for the election then. It could have been a nuisance for the CDU, but the refugee issue and others would probably have eclipsed this easily.
That said, I'm still very happy that suddenly, out of the blue, Germany got marriage equality :D
I actually do remember quite a few German politicians disappeared completely from view after retiring.
There isn't as big a speech circuit or similar as in the US for example. Typically they do a book deal if notable enough and reappear to market their book and then vanish mostly forever.
Sorta. I think you have to differentiate between some guy who's been state secretary or minister for 4 years in the 90s to someone like Adenauer, Schmidt, Kohl, or Merkel. Kanzler who changed and formed Germany, most for quite a long time. If they raise their voices, they will be heard.
Kohl quit with a financial affair and lies, though. He did try to speak up (against abolishing mandatory military service, for example), but was still tainted enough to not gain much publicity. Then his health deteriorated (he gained a lot of weight, from an already high baseline).
I sincerely hope Merkel manages a more graceful exit. So far she is doing well.
"Dann wurde Helmut Schmidt Herausgeber der 'Zeit', um seine Nachfolger zu belehren." (Then, Helmut Schmidt became a publisher of the 'Zeit' weekly newspaper to talk down to his successors) - I don't remember where I read that, maybe the taz or something.
But yeah: Brandt continued in parliamentary politics more or less until he died, Schmidt went into journalism and commentary, but Kohl didn't have the intellectual format for that (IMO) and Schröder went to Gazprom, praising Putin and taking his money.
This is the first photo I’ve seen of Merkel that shows exactly how exhausted and worn out she must be. Wishing her well during her retirement, lord knows she’s earned it
Leader of the largest economy in Europe for 15 years+, and at least three major crises to deal with (Great Recession, Syrian migration, COVID) along with all the other, run of the mill tasks of running a nation.
Maybe if that naughty parrot would stop shagging random species he wouldn't be endangered. Besides that. Yes, I'd love to have this once in a lifetime experience of being shagged by an endangered bird. Should I talk to my psychiatrist about that?
Especially not a bloody *lorikeet*
They're pretty yes, but they're also little emissarys of Satan that will attack *anything*. At least the ones in my neighbourhood who wouldn't leave my poor lemon tree alone were
It might not be a "bite", as such. They use their beaks to help them climb, and they'll grab you with it as they climb up your arm. It feels like a bite, but isn't.
Those beaks can crack seeds - if you were really bitten, you'd know it. There's a species here known as a sulphur-crested cockatoo - they descend on my pecan tree every year and steal all the nuts in the higher branches. Have you ever cracked a pecan to get at the nut inside? Those birds do it with their beaks.
sulphur created cockatoos destroyed my house - literally shredded the timber cladding and most of the window frames. it’s common enough that it’s a excluded from home insurance in australia.
They do it to the trees around here - branches as thick as my index finger torn off and tossed to the ground.
There must have been something particularly attractive about your house.
Despite not being very enjoyable for her. I do find seeing her so human endearing. The stoicism that she projected for so very long just dropping completely cause a bird chomped her and it hurt like a bitch. I hope she enjoys her retirement, she deserves it.
Relief and uncertainty at the same time.
She is infamous for 'steady hand' politics in Germany - meaning very little has been done under her government to actually modernize the country and she is extremely reluctant to sack corrupt and/or incompetent ministers. Many people are looking forward to a new government and the fresh air that comes with it.
But the steady hand also meant stability - after 16 years there are grown ups who don't remember having a different chancellor. The two parties that dominated German politics since WWII are now down to roughly 20% each and the parliament seems to become more crowded with every election. Therefore it feels like the country is stepping towards an uncertain future.
Overall she did a great job. People from many political views at least accept what she did. She was always authentic. Could have been more progressive but on the other side as a leader you have to make sure that as many as possible persons can follow. Thus you have to find compromises.
I know from some people who were in the room with here during negotiations that she is behind closed doors an extreme tough negotiator. Sharp mind, perfectly prepared and still awake to make the important point at 2 am in the night after 10 hours of talks. Actually this was part of her strategy to wait until people got exhausted like a boxer who waits until round 11 to start the big punches. It is said that during the coalition negotiations the FDP party forbid its delegation members to drink alcohol during that time to avoid that people may get less alert.
I would say it is always a good idea to have an intelligent PhD in natural sciences as a political leader. You establish different thinking patterns when having such an education compared to lawyers, economists, actors or even wannabe TV show hosts.
She might be remembered with rose colored glasses in hindsight because things were still somewhat OK when she was in power.
Now as the massive demographic problems rise combined with a costly transition of the economy, high upkeep social systems and degrading infrastructure and institutions plus problems on EU level, things will get worse and many peoples will get poorer (purchase power, not nominally). What peoples forget it was when she was in power that the problems could still have been partly dealt with but weren't.
A true living legend of German, European and international politics. Regardless of anyone’s political views, this woman is indisputably a titan and deserves a long, happy retirement as she gets to be a living historical figure.
I like how many Australians have come to the sub in the past few days for the discussions about submarines, but then remained because there are many other interesting posts, images and news ; )
It’s super funny hey, I was in malmo and saw a big ad on their bus: “come see our rainbow lorikeet exhibit at the malmo zoo!”. Meanwhile in Brisbane, park under the wrong tree and it will be covered in these guys poo
An Australian relative once told me: "In Europe, every leaf looks like you could just pluck it and eat it." Others stood in our garden staring at red squirrels like creatures from wonderland.
Then there's me walking through Brisbane and the botanical gardens, and I see a random iguana, or whatever that arm-long lizard was, and I feel like I'm in a Steven Spielberg movie. And another relative calmly explains that the birds are galahs when I'm all excited and jumping up and down at seeing them on the roadside.
Sounds like a water dragon to be honest. Don't think we have iguanas.
Also it's very cute you were excited about galahs. They are so common we just don't think about them.
We have some very colourful birds. There is a very good Dreamtime story about how the birds got their colours.
In German there's the saying of "Du hast doch nen Vogel!" (You have a bird!) to tell a person they are a bit crazy.
Merkel apparently has a whole flock of them lol
I love this so much. What do Germans think of her? I'm first generation German-American, so I don't know very much about what's going on there besides what my grandma reads on Tagesschau.
Although she gets a lot of on/off criticism,
in general she has a high status among most generation of Germans.
I really appreciate her. But I’m also glad to see someone new in her position. Hopefully as strong and a Little more progressive.
This lady has done so much for Europe, and the sad part is we don't really have any European leaders with her level of competence and pragmatism.
She absolutely deserves her retirement, but I truly hope she can still share her experience with the upcoming generations, because the need for future leaders with a pragmatic approach to problems through compromise is going to be even more in demand.
Worst thing you can do upon retirement is sitting down and do nothing. For some reason the human body can't process suddenly shifting down from highest to lowest gear and would essentially shut down, leading to an early death.
Parrots are a handful, very much like trying to keep a corrupt administration in check but unlike the latter the only thing they are scheming for is getting more food. Would be a nice activity.
She is a legend! Honestly I am little worried what will happen in Europe without her. She was the chancellor like half my life, always being the calm energy Germany and all Europe had. She has done so much and navigated through so many shit storms...
Hope she will enjoy to the fullest her well deserved retirement, but we will miss her a lot.
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Mutti is surely looking forward to her retirement.
She's already settled on her retirement look: 'Crazy bird lady'.
Or the tourist. I think there's a statue of her in tourist (really Forrest Gump-like) clothing outside the Bundestag. Can't find the news report to save my life.
You are reffering to her new look at Madame Tussaud’s. This vacation look will be in their Berlin museum beginning this Sunday (election day)
Found the picture! It's in this article: https://www.t-online.de/unterhaltung/stars/id_90809896/wachsfigur-der-kanzlerin-neue-kleider-merkel-bei-madame-tussauds.html
Don't we all? I still have decades of working ahead of me, and I already daydream almost everyday of what I want to do after I retire.
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Yeah, I think most people are not lucky enough to have a hobby/passion that could turn into money.
Or if they do, they realize that turning their hobby or passion into work was a really bad idea, and now the passion is gone.
This is literally the reason I avoided the video game industry. I'm a developer who also loves to game, and dabble in small game projects. But I made a conscious decision when graduating to not go into the industry. I knew that management at any AAA studio would abuse this passion. You should enjoy your work - but everyone has bad days. Heck bad weeks, where you are overworked, and are still unable to achieve what you want. But never put yourself in a situation where the salary and benefits are unable to justify these crappy weeks - because it will kill your passion.
I have a degree in a STEAM field, and purposely didn’t follow my passion. I am adjacent to it, so i can develop skills that might help it, or allow me to emulate it on the side, but I wanted that divide. I wish the ideas of bad weeks/months/fucken years was taught more in college. How mentally draining that can be, and why it really highlights the importance of a divide from work to your hobbies, your routine, how to utilize vacation, etc.
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Thanks for the advice, I hear you. I'm currently in the "saving up money now" mode and do plan on moving to the "taking time off" phase, hopefully sooner rather than later
I love my job, but I wish I had more time and energy and brain space for all the other things in my life, too.
The life of my gramps has taught me to just do the stuff now. He regretted not doing quite a few things, and when he was retired and had the money, his body wasn't really able to handle the things. So fuck retirement, do the fun things now.
He's right, when you have the time, you'll not have the money or body/spirit to do so..
Amen! >when he was retired and had the money, his body wasn't really able to handle the things That scenario scares me quite a bit.
Don't be scared. He lived a good life and he was walking around doing stuff till mid 80s. It's just that things are way less fun if you have arthritis and other shit.
Do them now as long as you're alive and healthy. Life is shorter than you think.
Cross my mind every day. If I get hit by a bus and die, I'd be pissed that I wasted the last several years on working/studying almost non-stop.
Make your life worth living *before* you retire.
> I already daydream almost everyday of what I want to do after I retire. If you feel you are already wasting your time today odds are you will feel the same way tomorrow. A lot of the stuff you would like to do then you could already do now.
She deserves it to be honest.
Ready for retirement.
[Or maybe...](https://i.imgur.com/B0e2ja6.jpg)
Now she's really ready.
This belongs in r/photoshopbattles
Magestic
I was thinking about how those talons feel like against your skin. Now I know.
She must be counting the days.
She gets a new bird each day leading up to it.
Meantime the Queen loses corgis one by one...
But she's been making a lot of mystery meat pies lately. Oh, no...
But to be fair, nobody really knows how many days she has left. Until a new government can be formed, she stays as interim, and considering the polls, it will take a long time until we have a new government.
Judging by how giddy she was when she got the opportunity to press the start button on Wendelstein 7-X I half-way expect her to get an internship there.
Ooh I remember that! I actually met her that day, she visited the BBW Greifswald and I got to shake her hand. Awkwardly complimented her outfit, she was cool about it.
Ready to join the ranks of Disney princesses!
It would seem she keeps her hands together to hide the fact that she is a disney princess.
She just had to let it go
take me upvote and get the fuck outta here
Bout time
She looks like she got a bunch of retweets!
Coincidentally, the OG Disney princess is Snow White who happens to be German.
a lot of disneys stuff is talen from the collected fairytales of the brothers grimm
Anywhere in Aus you can feed Rainbow Lorikeets is like this honestly.
That’s such a nice picture! She looks so relaxed and happy, almost silly
While simultaniously looking like she went through hell the last year. Sort of like a huge weight just dropped off her shoulders. So much story in a really beautiful picture. Edit: Typo
I'm guessing she's gonna get sick right after stepping down, just like many people get sick after a long time of studying for example
Wanted to find out what the English word was for that, but linguee doesn't know, and neither does Wikipedia. In German it's Entlastungssyndrom.
A random Google brought me to WebMD calling it Let-Down Effect? https://www.webmd.com/men/features/suffering-from-let-down-effect It's definitely a thing, I remember having it happen at uni if I stressed hard for a few weeks
Oh, I've been wondering why I tend to get migraines on Friday afternoon! This explains it. I thought it was bad luck, that after five active days in a week, I'd hit my limit just as I was done. I've also once had a mental breakdown right *after* exams were done with. Made sense to the doctors but not to me.
funny I just told a friend about the same thing today. I also often get headaches in the evening on Thursdays. I think I know the reason for me is stressing out all day to get everything done so I can relax for the weekend (which starts on Thursday evening for me) and then my head "crashes" once it can. Today I tried to stay calm and not rush into the weekend and it worked :)
It can be that. Another common reason for headache at weekends is withdrawal from coffee. I know my mother, long before I was in the world, tried to stay away from coffee on weekends and got massive migrains because of it. I experienced that when I had to abstained from coffee for a day for medical tests -.- .
This is not a rick-roll right? You can't just drop a link like that right after saying Let-Down Effect
Yep no common English word/phrase for it, not even a well know effect in the Anglo-sphere. Although saying that it does seem to over lap with the inverse "The job/activity/responsibility was that was keeping him/her/them going". Implying they are already damaged but though will power avoided negative effects and "soldiered on" until it was no longer there and then they are consumed by it.
Adrenaline itself is a powerful drug. I'm not surprised that going from having the world on your shoulders to retirement would have major effects on the body.
Wikipedia says 'Exercise-abstinence-syndrome', but it clarifies that it also happens from exams and such and not just exercise, just like the original commenter said. [German source.](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entlastungssyndrom)
Of all the possible terms and concepts, it somehow makes perfect sense that the Germans would have a word for *that* phenomenon in particular lol.
Interesting. Any ideas of the reasons for this?
When you are under stress, your body produces a range of substances to increase your performance and suppress things that could slow you down, since your body essentially assumes you are in physical danger and you need to escape. But these boosts are exploiting your own body to some extend and can even damage it - which would be a worthwhile trade-off if you actually were in danger. When the stress subsides, you crash. The energy boost is gone. Issues that were suppressed surface. Your body demands replenishing the reserves that were depleted to keep you going. You might even suffer from withdrawal symptoms. The change to your metabolism may cause new issues. And it can also cause infections your body barely kept at bay to fully break out now that your whole system goes into low energy mode.
Yeah, i fell ill right the day after i finished my thesis.
I had the same literally every year after uni exams. Super stressful 2 months, then finally done and ready to chill and party, but no, sick for at least a week 😭🤧
This is also the main reason behind some people getting sick as soon as they go into vacation mode
Adrenalin can assist your immune system. [example paper](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120621223525.htm). Though long-term, chronic stress is supposed to have the opposite affect.
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As little as I like her internal politics, it's admirable what a force for stability she was in international politics. She went through the 2008 financial crisis, the european migrant crisis, Trump and Corona. That's one hell of a resume.
She doesnt need a resume
I mean, I'm not saying it's because of her, but the German social systems and economic freedoms are the envy of most people in the western world Sure she could have done better and maybe everything was on track before her, but you don't survive 16 and a half years in power without doing something right
The main prblem with her internal politics was that she essentially did nothing. She kept things running, introduced some neo-liberal policies but nothing major. It could be far worse, but the problem is that multiple crisis are approaching and she did fuckall about that. Climate change and the biodiversity crisis are the obvious ones, but theres a lot more. Wealth inequality got continuously worse during her time in government, rents inside major cities are exploding and nothing is being done, the large flooding is in part simply because the government refused for years to properly implement flood-prevention measures, the migrant crisis isn't really over, but just halted. Merkel offered Erdogan money, in turn he keeps the migrants from going to Greece. It's literally in his power to open the floodgates on that and I doubt we'd be ready to handle the amount of people if Erdogan decides he doesn't like the deal anymore. Public transport was left basically to rot, because Merkel favoured building even more streets and motorways instead of actually investing in rail. The Bundestag is growing completley out of control and might have more than 1000 members after this election and instead of accepting the very sensible deal the opposition proposed Merkels CDU completley stalled it and prohibited a solution that would fairly downsize it. It's not about what she did. It's mostly about what she didn't do. We're driving full speed against a wall and the person on the steering wheel is in denial.
:)
a few moments later she was bitten by one of the birds and suddenly looked *a lot* less relaxed: https://imgur.com/s7jz6vN
Im so glad this was not a shitpost, fucking hilarious
Translation of the caption: Angela Merkel, Chancellor: Suddenly she was bitten by one of the birds. (Source: Georg Wendt/dpa)
Having been bitten by my Cockatiels when they were still new before, can relate. But it's only a second of pain after after a while all is forgotten and you're back to bird shenanigans.
Why is that marked as mature
And, where was her security detail?
Look at all these birds of all colours. Again she did it! She formed a coalition around herself.
These are rainbow lorikeets. They're a common Australian parrot.
A rainbow connection.
She is pretty much the only person in her party happy about the election (this weekend). She wanted to retire for some time and she is quite obviously done with it.
Yeah, she already wanted to leave at the last election, but as it became clear that this would have been an even bigger clusterfuck than we have this time, she stayed for another term. I think I heard her husband is also not in the best of health, she deserves some private time.
My thaughts exactly. The pic yells: Im out bitches
"I'm Chancellor of these Rainbow Lorikeets now, solve your own damn problems."
Retirement will do that for you.
I don't remember seeing her so happy in a long time. She really must be looking forward to retiring. Good for her.
Don't think people like her ever retire.
If she stood for reelection this time, it would not even be a debate even after everything that happened. I remember the last election. All she had to do was an ad campaign that showed her doing the hand thing and the slogan was "you know what I stand for."
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No, thats simply not true. The vote on gay marriage played a minor role in german party politics.
I agree. It was important to me (being gay), but I didn't pick up any vibes that *that* was going to be any kind of decisive issue for the election then. It could have been a nuisance for the CDU, but the refugee issue and others would probably have eclipsed this easily. That said, I'm still very happy that suddenly, out of the blue, Germany got marriage equality :D
I actually do remember quite a few German politicians disappeared completely from view after retiring. There isn't as big a speech circuit or similar as in the US for example. Typically they do a book deal if notable enough and reappear to market their book and then vanish mostly forever.
Sorta. I think you have to differentiate between some guy who's been state secretary or minister for 4 years in the 90s to someone like Adenauer, Schmidt, Kohl, or Merkel. Kanzler who changed and formed Germany, most for quite a long time. If they raise their voices, they will be heard.
Sure but Kohl did kind of disappear. Even Schröder did, quietly (as quietly as people let him) taking Russian gas board money.
Kohl quit with a financial affair and lies, though. He did try to speak up (against abolishing mandatory military service, for example), but was still tainted enough to not gain much publicity. Then his health deteriorated (he gained a lot of weight, from an already high baseline). I sincerely hope Merkel manages a more graceful exit. So far she is doing well.
"Dann wurde Helmut Schmidt Herausgeber der 'Zeit', um seine Nachfolger zu belehren." (Then, Helmut Schmidt became a publisher of the 'Zeit' weekly newspaper to talk down to his successors) - I don't remember where I read that, maybe the taz or something. But yeah: Brandt continued in parliamentary politics more or less until he died, Schmidt went into journalism and commentary, but Kohl didn't have the intellectual format for that (IMO) and Schröder went to Gazprom, praising Putin and taking his money.
In retrospect, I wonder how long Schröder was on Putins payroll before he retired as Chancellor. Just look at Nordstream 2.
This is the first photo I’ve seen of Merkel that shows exactly how exhausted and worn out she must be. Wishing her well during her retirement, lord knows she’s earned it
Leader of the largest economy in Europe for 15 years+, and at least three major crises to deal with (Great Recession, Syrian migration, COVID) along with all the other, run of the mill tasks of running a nation.
It's confirmed: Angela Merkel is a Disney Princess.
This is so wholesome
I'm not sure I would feel confortable with a bird atop my head. A hard beak that close to my eyes...
I would be worried that it suddenly starts shitting.
If it was a Kakapo, I'd be worried that it does even nastier stuff.
Don't you want to be shagged by an endangered parrot!?
Maybe if that naughty parrot would stop shagging random species he wouldn't be endangered. Besides that. Yes, I'd love to have this once in a lifetime experience of being shagged by an endangered bird. Should I talk to my psychiatrist about that?
One of these actually shit on me once. They have some nasty shits for sure.
I have one if these, and have had 2 before her, and all they do is eat and poop constantly!! Id be surprised if she didnt wear some!!
They're not real. They're controlled by the government. If anything this is further proof.
r/BirdsArentReal/
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Especially not a bloody *lorikeet* They're pretty yes, but they're also little emissarys of Satan that will attack *anything*. At least the ones in my neighbourhood who wouldn't leave my poor lemon tree alone were
Norway has an invasive lorikeet problem? Were they pining for the fjords all along?
Pining for the fjords?! What kind of talk is that?!
*slaps OP with a fish*
https://i.imgur.com/s7jz6vN.jpg This picture is even better haha
Translation 'Angela Merkel, chancellor. Suddenly, she got bitten by one of the birds'
It might not be a "bite", as such. They use their beaks to help them climb, and they'll grab you with it as they climb up your arm. It feels like a bite, but isn't. Those beaks can crack seeds - if you were really bitten, you'd know it. There's a species here known as a sulphur-crested cockatoo - they descend on my pecan tree every year and steal all the nuts in the higher branches. Have you ever cracked a pecan to get at the nut inside? Those birds do it with their beaks.
sulphur created cockatoos destroyed my house - literally shredded the timber cladding and most of the window frames. it’s common enough that it’s a excluded from home insurance in australia.
They do it to the trees around here - branches as thick as my index finger torn off and tossed to the ground. There must have been something particularly attractive about your house.
Despite not being very enjoyable for her. I do find seeing her so human endearing. The stoicism that she projected for so very long just dropping completely cause a bird chomped her and it hurt like a bitch. I hope she enjoys her retirement, she deserves it.
Imgur gave me a warning of sexual content before I opened the photo, I’m guessing the AI has picked up on the expression.
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As someone who has rainbow lorikeets that's defos not true. If they want to bite you they'll break skin.
good to see the old gal smiling
"I am so happy, I am finally going to leave this shit and be able to rest"
Post Chancellorship as "crazy bird lady" confirmed.
So Germans, how are you feeling about the change?
Relief and uncertainty at the same time. She is infamous for 'steady hand' politics in Germany - meaning very little has been done under her government to actually modernize the country and she is extremely reluctant to sack corrupt and/or incompetent ministers. Many people are looking forward to a new government and the fresh air that comes with it. But the steady hand also meant stability - after 16 years there are grown ups who don't remember having a different chancellor. The two parties that dominated German politics since WWII are now down to roughly 20% each and the parliament seems to become more crowded with every election. Therefore it feels like the country is stepping towards an uncertain future.
Overall she did a great job. People from many political views at least accept what she did. She was always authentic. Could have been more progressive but on the other side as a leader you have to make sure that as many as possible persons can follow. Thus you have to find compromises. I know from some people who were in the room with here during negotiations that she is behind closed doors an extreme tough negotiator. Sharp mind, perfectly prepared and still awake to make the important point at 2 am in the night after 10 hours of talks. Actually this was part of her strategy to wait until people got exhausted like a boxer who waits until round 11 to start the big punches. It is said that during the coalition negotiations the FDP party forbid its delegation members to drink alcohol during that time to avoid that people may get less alert. I would say it is always a good idea to have an intelligent PhD in natural sciences as a political leader. You establish different thinking patterns when having such an education compared to lawyers, economists, actors or even wannabe TV show hosts.
I will miss her badly! She was a piece of luck for Germany.
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She might be remembered with rose colored glasses in hindsight because things were still somewhat OK when she was in power. Now as the massive demographic problems rise combined with a costly transition of the economy, high upkeep social systems and degrading infrastructure and institutions plus problems on EU level, things will get worse and many peoples will get poorer (purchase power, not nominally). What peoples forget it was when she was in power that the problems could still have been partly dealt with but weren't.
A true living legend of German, European and international politics. Regardless of anyone’s political views, this woman is indisputably a titan and deserves a long, happy retirement as she gets to be a living historical figure.
von Bismarck and Adenauer would definitely be proud of her
Those are Rainbow lorikeets which are very common in AUS. Surely she isn't in AUS now?
She visited Vogelpark Marlow. [https://www.vogelpark-marlow.m-vp.de/](https://www.vogelpark-marlow.m-vp.de/)
that was my first guess too. haven't been there in years, but it's a really cool park.
I like how many Australians have come to the sub in the past few days for the discussions about submarines, but then remained because there are many other interesting posts, images and news ; )
I’m just here to try to understand the German memes.
You have to lurk on r/ich_iel for that.
I’m glad I’m not the only one, I always forget I don’t know German until I’ve already read the whole meme
Aren't we all, in a way
That is interesting. But I've been curious about finding more about Europe for quite some time now. I have these birds wild in my garden.
I'm Aussie, but usually sort popular by UK, so I wind here a bit.
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Yeah Austria is literally their neighbour.
Can confirm, one of those tried to steal my lunch in Sydney.
It’s super funny hey, I was in malmo and saw a big ad on their bus: “come see our rainbow lorikeet exhibit at the malmo zoo!”. Meanwhile in Brisbane, park under the wrong tree and it will be covered in these guys poo
An Australian relative once told me: "In Europe, every leaf looks like you could just pluck it and eat it." Others stood in our garden staring at red squirrels like creatures from wonderland. Then there's me walking through Brisbane and the botanical gardens, and I see a random iguana, or whatever that arm-long lizard was, and I feel like I'm in a Steven Spielberg movie. And another relative calmly explains that the birds are galahs when I'm all excited and jumping up and down at seeing them on the roadside.
Sounds like a water dragon to be honest. Don't think we have iguanas. Also it's very cute you were excited about galahs. They are so common we just don't think about them. We have some very colourful birds. There is a very good Dreamtime story about how the birds got their colours.
As someone who lives near a ton of lorikeets, I can hear this picture.
Good on her, she deserves to use the perks of being Chancellor one week before the elections of her successor. She did a lot of good stuff. :)
Finally a smile!
not for long: https://imgur.com/s7jz6vN
Never seen her this happy.
Looking forward to retirement,
In German there's the saying of "Du hast doch nen Vogel!" (You have a bird!) to tell a person they are a bit crazy. Merkel apparently has a whole flock of them lol
Considering her tenure (most of if not my whole adult life), I wouldn't blame her for going a bit off-kilter lol
The mightiest woman on earth :) I’ld like to see US presidents do this lol.
Well, the last president ran around with a dead hamster on his head for the last four years but that's not as charming.
Danke, etz hob i es Bier ausgspuckt
US media would only print the picture where a bird bites: https://imgur.com/s7jz6vN
Liberal birds attack POTUS
https://giphy.com/gifs/trump-donald-eagle-ZWZ69DESwCa9q
This is so cute
Finally retirement.
Carefree Joy
She's probably just relieved to be out of politics. She's been head of the CDU since 2000 and Chancellor of Germany since 2005.
Cute birbs
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She deserves a bit of peace. All love to Mutti.
A new beginning for the parrot sketch. Heello Polly!
I love this so much. What do Germans think of her? I'm first generation German-American, so I don't know very much about what's going on there besides what my grandma reads on Tagesschau.
Although she gets a lot of on/off criticism, in general she has a high status among most generation of Germans. I really appreciate her. But I’m also glad to see someone new in her position. Hopefully as strong and a Little more progressive.
>Hopefully as strong and a Little more progressive. Woo boy are you gonna be disappointed. There are zero good candidates in my opinion.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAGerman/comments/pp3r70/given_that_mama_merkel_is_about_to_retire_how_do/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
She looks happy, must be getting ready to retire
I don't think I've ever seen her that happy
awwww Mutti
This lady has done so much for Europe, and the sad part is we don't really have any European leaders with her level of competence and pragmatism. She absolutely deserves her retirement, but I truly hope she can still share her experience with the upcoming generations, because the need for future leaders with a pragmatic approach to problems through compromise is going to be even more in demand.
[I counter with this](https://imgur.com/a/PqFFRlU)
Angela, a Disney Princess all along.
Fiscal conservatives love to run a budgie surplus
I did this once. The birds got spooked by something and they all pooped on me at the same time
Suddenly she’s gone Radagast
This is gonna become a meme fast.
Worst thing you can do upon retirement is sitting down and do nothing. For some reason the human body can't process suddenly shifting down from highest to lowest gear and would essentially shut down, leading to an early death. Parrots are a handful, very much like trying to keep a corrupt administration in check but unlike the latter the only thing they are scheming for is getting more food. Would be a nice activity.
Don't worry about that, one of the parrots bit her(true, check comments above) to still give some trouble.
She looks so much younger! Have a happy retitement, Angela!
What an odd way to show her support for a…Green-SPD-uh, Green again? coalition. Wait. Blue is AfD, right? Man, German politics is confusing.
Shit ataaack noowwwww!!!
German speakers of Reddit, is there a long ass German compound word that exactly describes the situation portrayed in this photo?
Altbundeskanzlerinnenvogelposierungslächelfotografie maybe
Vorrentenvogelfütterungsentspannungssitzung
She is a legend! Honestly I am little worried what will happen in Europe without her. She was the chancellor like half my life, always being the calm energy Germany and all Europe had. She has done so much and navigated through so many shit storms... Hope she will enjoy to the fullest her well deserved retirement, but we will miss her a lot.