Merkel like Schröder: Excuse me? D rather not

"I'm not making a mea culpa now.

That's not my thing.” This is how the former Basta Chancellor Gerhard Schröder explained his attitude towards Putin and his politics.

He did so in a wine-loving conversation with a correspondent for the New York Times, to whom he made himself available precisely because the newspaper had publicly corrected its position on the Iraq war.

Schröder obviously appreciates that in others – he himself has either always done everything right or at least sees no reason to later regret anything publicly.

Reinhard Muller

Responsible editor for "current affairs" and FAZ objection, responsible for "state and law".

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This attitude, which Angela Merkel now also displayed (“I will not apologize”), corresponds to a certain state practice, possibly also an expectation of the public, which rewards perseverance rather than the admission of mistakes, let alone guilt.

It goes without saying that someone who makes numerous decisions or omits them makes mistakes, but talking about them is not exactly considered a strength – unless you cultivate it, like Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens.

Angela Merkel, for example, hardly ever spoke publicly of mistakes, but significantly so in the Böhmermann farce.

The public comedian had made fun of the Turkish ruler Erdogan in a poem, partly beyond the bounds of the law, as was later determined by the court.

After a phone call between Merkel and the then Turkish Prime Minister, Merkel's government spokesman said that the Chancellor agreed that the text of the Böhmermann poem was "deliberately offensive".

"Looking back, that was a mistake," said Merkel later.

Merkel rarely asked for forgiveness

She could hardly utter a word about her decisions on the refugee crisis, on nuclear policy, on the Bundeswehr or on the corona pandemic.

An exception was again an occasion that was rather small compared to the challenge of the epidemic, namely the withdrawal of the “days off” planned for Easter 2021: The idea of ​​​​breaking the third wave of the corona pandemic with additional measures such as days off over Easter is not Wrong, but marked by "best intentions", said the Chancellor.

“I know that this whole process caused additional uncertainty.

I deeply regret that.

I ask the forgiveness of all citizens for this," Merkel said.

Why else would you ask for forgiveness, one might ask, if the head of government, from his point of view, acted to the best of his knowledge and belief - and from the point of view of the time no other decision was possible - or at least the one taken seems reasonable.

In the face of the successful rescue of hostages from Mogadishu and the assassination of Employer President Hanns Martin Schleyer, Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt said in front of the Bundestag in 1977: "Anyone who knows that, despite all efforts, he will be burdened with neglect and guilt, whatever action he takes will be of his own accord not wanting to say that he did everything and that everything was right.”

As a rule, however, the prevailing view is that there is no reason to apologize.

One may regret misleading statements, ask forgiveness of fellow politicians for derogatory statements, but in case of doubt do not want to see one's own decisions being made unjust.

According to statements by Rudolf Augstein, neither Chancellor Konrad Adenauer apologized for his statement about the "abyss of treason" nor did the judiciary for the pre-trial detention.

Of course, Augstein received compensation.

That was the answer of the rule of law.

Helmut Kohl later admitted to mistakes in the donation affair, but also said that he only wanted to serve his party.

Externally, as a statesman with a view to far-reaching decisions, you hold back.

This can also have the reason to avoid liability.

For example, the admission of historical injustice can lead to claims.

For this reason, numerous gestures of reconciliation between former wartime opponents mostly do without explicit confessions: Shame, yes.

fault no.

It may also play a role here that, from today's perspective, incomprehensible suffering in other times was considered legitimate, even wanted by God.

And how does an apology work today in the face of monstrous crimes?

Willy Brandt's prostration in Warsaw was also so impressive because it didn't say a word.

"We were wrong, terribly wrong"

After all, anyone who speaks of mistakes and guilt also suggests that they could have acted differently.

Federal President Steinmeier said at the beginning of April: “We have not managed to stop the development that has now occurred and which has now erupted in this war.” The warnings from our Eastern European partners “we should have taken more seriously;

In particular, Germany's adherence to the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline project was a mistake "because it cost us a lot of credibility with our European partners".

Of course, it is also about the current credibility – and more.

In 1995, the aging Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, one of the key players in the Vietnam War, caused a stir in America when he confessed: "We were wrong, terribly wrong." act believed.

But that was wrong.

You owe it to future generations to explain why.