Big tattoo, stand still! ”And:“ Helmet off to prayer! ”When these orders are issued on Thursday evening in Berlin's Bendlerblock, then we have already done what is most interesting from a personal point of view.
That is the naturally subjective choice of music by the person to be adopted, the ceremonial trimmings are always the same.
The first to step out of line here was Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
As a resigned and since then, by his standards, defense minister, he could not help but wish for a hard rock anthem for the big tattoo in addition to the obligatory national anthem: "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple.
Although the taste was far from original, this departure from the series of marches, pious songs and chorales normally chosen for this occasion had something downright provocatively freaky.
The main thing is to attract attention: That was the baron's motto until the end.
Schröder chose "My Way"
Until then, pieces from the entertainment field were the exception; remembered are “My Way”, which Chancellor Schröder had the Bundeswehr Music Corps blow to him, and “St. Louis Blues ”for Federal President Köhler, maybe also“ You have to go over seven bridges ”by the GDR group Karat for Federal President Gauck, who herewith, almost bleakly free of surprises, apparently once again bring his East German muddling through ethos to the audience wanted to.
The fact that Angela Merkel now wants to hear Nina Hagens “You forgot the color film” during her big tattoo is perfectly fine under the aspect of maintaining the GDR tradition and moreover tied in with her comment of October 3, her GDR past be no or at least not just “ballast”.
(So she seems to have coped with the fact that Nina Hagen yelled at her when she was sitting next to you on a talk show about drugs almost thirty years ago.)
Defiant-headed and melancholy and brave
It can be seen as a big surprise, however, that she has also put Hildegard Knef's “It should rain red roses” on the list. The Knef canon would also have offered a choice: “From now on things went downhill”, but that would have only unnecessarily worried the population. The rose song, on the other hand, has a message in store that one would like to call defiant-headed: never allow yourself to be silenced, miracles should happen all the time and fate should be very, very kind to you, nothing but things that reveal a sense of entitlement, as one would expect from from a spoiled brat, but not from the Chancellor.
But be careful, the song ends in melancholy bravery, in a somehow cheerful, absolutely realistic skepticism: "I develop anew far from the old / keep most of what is expected".
In other words: Angela Merkel can do that too. So much for the text.
But it is not sung at all.
You can only hear the brass-heavy music, which has taken its rough edges from every piece and will probably ensure that you don't think about anything further this time.