Affluent, Anxious and Almost Normal: A Journey Through Merkel’s Germany

As Angela Merkel prepares to step down after 16 years as chancellor of Germany, she leaves behind a country profoundly changed — and anxious about changing more. In 2021 I pitched this story to the NYT and began a journey through Germany: curious about how my country and its’ people had been shaped after 16 years of Merkel governance.

Angela Merkel will be the longest governing chancellor that Germany ever had. Even the first German Chancellor Adenauer and her mentor Helmut Kohl had lasted less than her. During her 16 years of leadership, one of the most stable ones not only in Europe but also globally, Merkel has gone through various crises (the refugee crisis, the threat of European populism, the global COVID pandemic) and has seen many leaders like Trump and Putin come and go.

The retreat from atomic power in the aftermath of Fukushima in 2011, her decision to take hundreds of thousands of refugees in 2015, even against the will of her own political party, are only some of the political moments that marked her governance.

But what do Germans think of her achievements and failures? What has changed in these 16 years? How did the era of Merkel shape Germany and its people?

On assignment for The New York Times

Backsen siblings Sophie, 23, Hannes, 19, and Paul, 21, on the island of Pellworm. Their family took Ms. Merkel’s government to court over its carbon dioxide emissions.

Sophie Backsen, 23, “Having a female chancellor all my life means there’s never been a doubt that women can do that job,” she said about Ms. Merkel. “But on the climate she has failed my generation.”

Paul Backsen transporting grains to feed cattle on the island of Pellworm. The Backsens have been farming there since 1703.

The village of Mauerkirchen in the German state of Bavaria.

Roland Mittermayer and Mathis Winkler with their sons . “She saw where the country was going and allowed it to go there,” Mr. Mittermayer said of Ms. Merkel’s stance on same-sex marriage.

Young people at a Christopher Street Day parade in the eastern city of Cottbus. Ms. Merkel never backed same-sex marriage outright, but she allowed it to happen.

A former mining pit that was turned into a lake near the eastern city of Forst. As coal is phased out, locals hope the tourism industry will help compensate for job losses.

The F60 colliery conveyor bridge at the Visitor Mine Lusatia, a tourist hotspot in the eastern mining region of Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf.

Workers assembling batteries for Mercedes electric cars in Stuttgart.

Helmut and Stephanie Wendlinger with their 2-year-old son, Xaver, and his newborn sister, Leni, in Bavaria.

Helmut Wendlinger, a baker in rural Bavaria, took advantage of parental leave legislation that Ms. Merkel’s government passed. “Men in my father’s generation did not get that chance,” he said.

Aleksandar Djordjevic, 38, second from left, and his wife, Jasmina, playing with their daughter and a friend in Plochingen, near Stuttgart.

The assembly of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class at the factory.

Six in 10 residents of Offenbach have a migration background.

Romaissa Elbaghdadi, 15, training with Angelo Raimon, 13, at a boxing club in Offenbach.

Cottbus

A coal power plant, which will be shut down by 2028, in the eastern village of Jänschwalde.

Mike Balzke with his wife and two daughters in Drewitz where his family has lived for seven generations. “We don’t want money, we want a future,” he said.

One of the many abandoned factories in Forst, a once prosperous textile hub on the Polish border. The new owner of this former textile factory wants to turn it into a cultural venue.

The island of Pellworm in the North Sea, which is threatened by rising sea levels.