Former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) did not feel comfortable with the term "Kohl's girl" at the beginning of her political career.
"It was hardly possible for me to be perceived as an independent person," said Merkel on Thursday evening at a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" in Munich.
At the time, after 35 years in the GDR, she finally wanted to make her own opinion heard.
"I found that to be quite depressing."
At the beginning of her career, Merkel was Federal Minister for Women and Youth in the cabinet of then Chancellor Helmut Kohl (CDU) and was long referred to in the media as "Kohl's girl".
One of the first articles about her that appeared in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" in the 1990s was entitled: "Why don't we know Angela Merkel?" It said: "She is the youngest minister that Germany has ever - maybe the nicest," quoted Merkel. "Although I should quickly realize that being nice in politics is such a thing."
The CSU and the "SZ", a difficult relationship
According to "SZ" editor-in-chief Wolfgang Krach, there are now 40,000 articles about Merkel in the archive of his newspaper, 2,000 more than about Kohl and over 10,000 more than about her direct predecessor Gerhard Schröder (SPD).
In the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" she learned a lot about her sister party, the CSU, Merkel said.
He is said to have a rather difficult relationship with "SZ", as CSU boss Markus Söder more than hinted at in his biting greeting at the ceremony.
"Everything that is successful from Bavaria in Germany is great in itself - even if it's the Süddeutsche Zeitung," said the Bavarian Prime Minister, who described himself as Merkel's "support act" that evening.
"I've been a "SZ" reader for over 30 years and was also a real fan of it for a few days."
However, to the displeasure of the Green Party politician Claudia Roth, who was also present, he acknowledged the newspaper as "the only serious opposition in Bavaria".
According to Krachs, 8,000 articles about Söder have appeared in the “Süddeutsche” – so far.