The Lady from East Germany

Although Angela Kasner was born in Hamburg (West Germany) in 1954, her father, a Lutheran pastor, was assigned to a church in East Germany in Quitzow, and the family moved to the East German countryside (in Templin), about 50 miles north of Berlin. So young Angela grew up on the “other side of the wall,” even though unlike most families, she and her parents were apparently able to move back and forth, from east to west, with relative ease, a phenomenon that suggests her father had more than close ties to the severe communist regime that ruled in the east.

Wikipedia outlines the early phase of Angela’s life: “Like most pupils, [Kasner] was a member of the official, Socialist-led youth movement Free German Youth (FDJ). However, she did not take part in the secular coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe, which was common in East Germany, and was confirmed instead. Later, at the Academy of Sciences, she became a member of the FDJ district board and secretary for ‘Agitprop’ (Agitation and Propaganda). [Kasner] herself claimed that she was secretary for culture. When [Kasner’s] onetime FDJ district chairman contradicted her, she insisted that: ‘According to my memory, I was secretary for culture. But what do I know? I believe I won't know anything when I'm 80.’ [Kasner’s] progress in the compulsory Marxism-Leninism course was graded only genügend (sufficient, passing grade) in 1983 and 1986.

“[Kasner] was educated in Templin and at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. While a student, she participated in the reconstruction of the ruin of the Moritzbastei, a project students initiated to create their own club and recreation facility on campus. Such an initiative was unprecedented in the GDR of that period, and initially resisted by the University of Leipzig. However, with backing of the local leadership of the SED party, the project was allowed to proceed. [Kasner] worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. She learned to speak Russian fluently, and earned a statewide prize for her proficiency. After being awarded a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) for her thesis on quantum chemistry, she worked as a researcher and published several papers.

“In 1989, [Kasner] got involved in the growing democracy movement after the fall of the Berlin Wall, joining the new party Democratic Awakening. Following the first (and only) democratic election of the East German state, she became the deputy spokesperson of the new pre-unification caretaker government under Lothar de Maizière.” So she was a communist scientist with little or no training in modern economics, much less in the arena of the kind of capitalist economy a unified Germany would generate in spades.

But Kasner grew through the unified German political system until the very future of the German banking system… actually the very future of Europe’s entire banking system… fell directly beneath her leadership and de facto control. “‘She is not the kind of person who leads Europe because she believes that she is meant to lead like some of her predecessors,’ said Kurt Kister, editor in chief of the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. ‘She takes responsibility when she sees that the others are not in a position and she believes that she has to.’” New York Times, October 27^th. Who is this Angela Dorothea Kasner? We actually know her name by reason of her first marriage, in 1977, to Ulrich Merkel (1977-1982).

Indeed, Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor since 2009, has become one of the world’s most effective and powerful leaders, literally shepherding the EU-currency nations through their most difficult moments since inception of the EU. Few believed that the lady from East Germany had the knowledge or the capability of dealing with the banking/sovereign debt crisis that threatened to impale Europe. They were wrong. Even with popular sentiments in her own constituency suggesting that voters were no longer supportive of continued German commitments to the failing nations to the south, Merkel led her parliament (and her coalition) headlong into the fray.

It was literally Germany and France, the former with vastly more economic power, that stared down the biggest banks in continental Europe… and they blinked: “It was approaching 2 a.m. [on October 27^th], not long before the Asian markets would open, and the [Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy] were desperately trying to nail down the last component of a complex deal to save the euro: forcing the banks to pay a greater share of Greece’s effective default… For hours, negotiators had been trying to persuade the banks to accede to a ‘voluntary’ 50 percent loss in the face value of their Greek bond holdings. The banks, which had already agreed to a 21 percent write-down, had dug in their heels.

“They knew how badly the European leaders needed a deal, and how much financial experts feared a disorderly, involuntary default. That could set off a ‘credit event,’ throwing world financial markets into turmoil, much as the collapse of Lehman Brothers did in the fall of 2008… But Mrs. Merkel called the bankers’ bluff, said officials present at the discussions. Accept the 50 percent write-down, she told the bankers, or bear the consequences of default. In effect, she was willing to risk a credit event, and to place the blame for any fallout on them.” New York Times, October 27^th.

The EU bailout fund was set, and while much remained to be fleshed out, the soaring stock market around the world on October 27^th was a resounding vote of confidence. Clearly, there won’t be warm and fuzzy feelings from Greeks (and except protests and even a few riots) who are having austerity shoved down their throats, but at least the debt load is lifting. She didn’t read the poll results to see what she should do; she did what she felt was the best choice for Europe… and Germany. Next: asking China to pick up some of the debt. Hmmm… I wonder what the strings will be.

I’m Peter Dekom, and leadership is not about following poll results!