Angela Merkel's first summer vacation as a political pensioner ends painfully: As is only now known, the former chancellor suffered a knee injury about three weeks ago - so severe that travel will not be possible for the whole of September.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel injured her knee at the end of her vacation. Her spokeswoman confirmed that she was on the mend but was unable to travel further. For this reason, she was also unable to attend a possible funeral service for the Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev. Merkel had already ended her vacation three weeks ago.
According to the spokeswoman, the former chancellor will not be able to travel for the whole of September. The healing process is going very well, but in view of the injury, "journeys of this kind are currently not recommended". The spokeswoman did not give details of the injury. She also did not provide any information about the circumstances, but said that Merkel did not need an operation.
Even when she was in office, Merkel usually spent her holidays with her husband Joachim Sauer in South Tyrol. The couple traveled to Sulden several times - a mountain village with around 400 inhabitants, and there they were primarily looking for seclusion while hiking. So probably also this year. There are usually no interviews or press dates, but there are occasional trips with Reinhold Messner. The place was said to be an insider tip for mountaineers.
Messner told the dpa in 2021 that he had drawn Merkel's attention to the northern Italian province at the time. Even before her time in the Chancellery, she asked him at a meeting: "Where can I go on vacation in the mountains?" said the 77-year-old. "She always dreamed of going to the mountains and couldn't do that in the GDR."
Merkel had praised Gorbachev in the morning as "a unique world politician". "May the memory of his historic achievement make it possible to pause, especially during these terrible weeks and months of Russia's war against Ukraine," Merkel said in a statement published on the CDU politician's website.
