Angela Merkel is good at imitating other politicians - to the exclusion of television cameras, of course, and she prefers to meet international colleagues whom she does not particularly like.

She was particularly good at imitating Donald Trump, at least that's what people who were in such groups report.

Ralph Bollmann

Correspondent for economic policy and deputy head of economics and “Money & More” for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.

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The Chancellor doesn't like it so much when she herself becomes a victim of such acting skills.

Your deputy Olaf Scholz did it a bit hard when he recently had himself photographed for a magazine with a Merkel diamond - not with the intention of exposing himself, but to portray himself as the legitimate legacy of the long-term chancellor.

This week Merkel intervened: There was a "huge difference" between Scholz and her, she rumbled.

But where are the parallels and differences between the native Hamburg, who ended up in the GDR at the age of three months, and the native Osnabrück, who became a Hamburg citizen at an early age?

There are indeed similarities, but not all are flattering.

Career

Both are late starters. Merkel was already 35 years old when the wall came down and she made her first political steps with the citizens' movement Democratic Awakening. A year later she was minister, after ten years party leader, she then needed another five years in the chancellery. Scholz was already deputy head of the Jusos at the age of 24, he campaigned for the overcoming of the capitalist economy when Merkel longed for western jeans. But he paused a few years before he - with changed views - made a second attempt at the Altona district and Hamburg state chairmanship. It was only at the age of 44 that he took over a real top position as the SPD general secretary - rather unlucky because the party was torn apart over the Hartz reforms. For four years he was Minister of Labor under Merkel,before his party left the government.

Only then did he start his third career, which led him through the offices of Hamburg mayor and Federal Minister of Finance to the candidacy for chancellor - so everything is not as straightforward as with the Eternal Chancellor.

What the two have in common, however, is patience and staying power: Just as Merkel endured the tough years of late Kohl in the hope of a later restart, Scholz decided quite early to wait for the end of the Merkel era to make his leap to power.

Surprising attacks such as Merkel's letter of separation from Kohl have not come down to us.

Compared to the Stoic Scholz, the outgoing Chancellor appears to be hectic and flighty.

worldview

Merkel listened less and less to the advice of economists in the course of her term of office; at Scholz, since his entry into the Ministry of Finance, interest in the expertise of economists has increased. Neither of them are ideologues in this field. Gerhard Schröder's famous words from the 1998 election campaign, that there are only good and bad, but no right and left economic policies, would still not be quoted today. For tactical reasons - but also because there are a few basic assumptions for both. Merkel is shaped by a Protestant achievement ethic, according to which work comes before pleasure and debt comes close to guilt. That Europeans could only shoulder their enormous social spending in the future if they also remained economically successful,she said often enough (without always acting on it). At the beginning of the financial and euro crisis, it relied more on the presumed rationality of the markets than on the courageous intervention of the states. Scholz is more inclined to emphasize the role of the public sector - whether he is promoting housing construction as Hamburg mayor or speaking about the climate-friendly restructuring of industrial society as a candidate for chancellor. Most of the investments, he says, however, have to come from investors: In the manner of the incumbent Chancellor, he is keeping a lot open.to emphasize the role of the public sector - whether as mayor of Hamburg he promoted housing construction or as a candidate for chancellor speaks about the climate-friendly restructuring of industrial society. Most of the investments, he says, however, have to come from investors: In the manner of the incumbent Chancellor, he is keeping a lot open.to emphasize the role of the public sector - whether as mayor of Hamburg he promoted housing construction or as a candidate for chancellor speaks about the climate-friendly restructuring of industrial society. Most of the investments, he says, however, have to come from investors: In the manner of the incumbent Chancellor, he is keeping a lot open.