The fact that Angela Merkel was revered in America for a while as the “leader of the free world” is primarily because she is not Donald Trump.

The chancellor's open-minded, balanced policy was so obviously in contradiction to the rowdy and nationalist US president that she became the ideal figure to identify with America's left-wing liberals, who did not recognize their country after 2016.

Since Merkel not only dealt diplomatically with Trump, but also turned him off, she herself contributed to this picture.

But it is also a product of German consensus democracy, which is very different from the ideological position wars that shape America today.

Merkel and Trump, that was old Europe against new America, to modify a catchphrase from the Bush era.

Germany is not a leading power

In truth, of course, Germany is not a leading global power.

In the 16 years of Merkel's chancellorship, the country has found it difficult to make its contribution to military operations that were intended to preserve the free world.

That depressed many in Washington, as did the debate about NATO's two percent target and the dispute over Nord Stream 2.

In other dossiers that are important in Atlantic relations, from climate protection to trade, Germany usually appears in concert with the EU.

Here, too, many differences have outlasted Trump.

Merkel's sense of reality includes the fact that after Biden took office she pointed out early on that Europe had different interests towards China than America, i.e. primarily economic ones.

Whether this is really the case would be worth discussing.

But the fact that China now plays a dominant role in relation to Washington shows how the world has changed.

When Merkel became Chancellor in 2005, Islamist terrorism was seen as the greatest common problem.

Now she is saying goodbye to an America that is in sharp competition with Russia and China.

Germany has not yet found its place there.