"Lucky to call her friend": Obama raves about former Chancellor Merkel

Angela Merkel is visiting Washington - and this time no official appointment follows the next.

"Lucky to call her friend": Obama raves about former Chancellor Merkel

Angela Merkel is visiting Washington - and this time no official appointment follows the next. Instead, the former chancellor strolls through the museum with Barack Obama. The former US President then sings a real hymn of praise to the German on Twitter.

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel met an old acquaintance on a trip to the United States: together with former President Barack Obama, she visited a museum in Washington, as shown by a photo published by Obama on Twitter. "I'm happy to be able to call her a friend," wrote the former head of state about Merkel.

During his time as president, he witnessed how Merkel "led through crises with her clever pragmatism, her good humor and her immovable moral compass," Obama wrote on Twitter. He was US President from 2009 to 2017 - his entire term fell within Merkel's term of office from 2005 to 2021.

In Washington, the two visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The photo published by Obama shows her smiling in front of a water installation in the building. The former chancellor has been in the US capital Washington since Monday, a spokeswoman for Merkel said. On Thursday she will return to Berlin.

Merkel had made it clear in the past that she wanted to travel a lot after her 16-year term in office - including to the USA.