1. Drunk: Campino von der Toten Hosen wanted to know from Angela Merkel in 1994: "Were you really drunk?" Her answer: "I got off a boat at night, four o'clock in the morning, after graduation, when I was eighteen, I had drunk too much of the cherry whiskey, and then suddenly I had a misfire For the moment I forgot that I would fall into the water when he got up beside me. "

DPA

Angela Kasner (2nd row, middle, slightly hidden) with her school friends from the 10th grade of the Polytechnic High School

2. The Smoker: Even as Federal Minister for Family and Youth in the 1990s, Merkel smoked regularly: "I smoked a pack of cigarettes every day," she said a few years ago in an interview with the magazine "Bunte": "With a strong However, I got used to it again. "

3. Just no dogs: Since she was bitten while riding a bicycle in 1995, Merkel keeps distance to dogs. Vladimir Putin probably knew that. During a visit to Sochi in January 2007, the Kremlin chief let his Labrador "Koni" sneak around her legs. Merkel was still unimpressed.

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Merkel, Putin and his Labrador "Koni"

4. Fear of Bouncing: As a nine-year-old Merkel waited immobile for 45 minutes on the diving board at the swimming lessons in Templin. Only when it was already ringing did she decide to jump. "That's just how I am, not very brave," she was once quoted as saying. "It always takes me a while to weigh the risks."

5. Your SMS: Merkel communicates a lot via SMS. She usually ends her messages with the abbreviation "am".

DPA

Angela Merkel with the mobile phone

6. The favorite mojis: Two years ago Angela Merkel told the children's news magazine DEIN SPIEGEL which pictograms she prefers to send: "Mostly a smiley, sometimes a heart, and a cake, if someone's birthday."

7. The favorite movie: In 2012, actor David Kross revealed to Merkel which movie she has seen most often. It's "Beyond Africa", the 1985 Hollywood love drama starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. On the other hand, she once described the Defa production "The Legend of Paul and Paula" from the GDR era as "favorite film".

8. The fishing license: As a child Merkel wanted to have her own boat. In the GDR that was only possible if you had a fishing license. Even then Merkel proved her sense of practical solutions. The note she got by becoming a member of a fishing club.

9. The favorite meal: potato soup. "I always mash the potatoes myself with a potato masher and not with the blender, so there are still bits left in the consistency," Merkel told the magazine "Bunte".

10. The Nastiest Food : The Scariest Meal Ever Offered? "In Mongolia, I was offered mare's milk, which made me heavy-handed, I do not like to drink milk in Germany, and I probably drank too much of it as a child," Merkel told DER SPIEGEL.

11. Merkel's flower: In 2011, an orchid was named after Merkel in Singapore. The "Dendrobium Angela Merkel" has purple-mint leaves, can be meter high with appropriate care - and defies allegedly adverse conditions. ...

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Merkel (CDU) smells of orchids in Singapore

12. Prototypes: Merkel was a scientist in the GDR as a physicist at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry. One person in particular is said to have done it to Merkel: Marie Curie, who was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in 1903.

13. The nickname: As a girl she was called "Kasi" because of her maiden name Kasner.

14. Gardening: Merkel's weekend house with garden in the Uckermark is her retreat. Of course she also does gardening. And then it can happen that Merkel is addressed in the background discussion in Chancellor aircraft on their black fingers: In this case, it was the walnut harvest.

15. Only moderately in the ideology: At age 29, Merkel researched at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR. In the subject "Marxism-Leninism" in 1986 she reached only the grade "sufficient". For her physical research, however, Merkel received a "very good" and was awarded a doctorate. From then on she was allowed to call herself a doctor.

REUTERS

Merkel Barbie

16. Barbie: At the beginning of 2009 Mattel presented a Merkel doll. "Politics can certainly be argued, but that in Germany we have a wife as Chancellor is certainly something special for other countries," said a company spokeswoman at the time about the "honorary barb".

17. The siblings: Merkel has a brother (Marcus Kasner, born 1957) and a sister (Irene, born 1964).

18. Merkel as a theater material: "Angela I. - A German Rose War" - that's the name of a comedy to be performed in Bremen. The world premiere in the Bremen Shakespeare Company is scheduled for the end of February. The play is about a chancellor, who rules the kingdom of her kingdom for the first time and has no alternative, said the theater.