Angela Merkel reads on holiday "The Tyrant"
The Chancellor is on vacation. As in previous years, Angela Merkel travels to South Tyrol during the summer break. The "Bild" newspaper spotted the CDU politician doing her holiday reading - and that's pretty telling.
As can be seen in the photos, Merkel is currently reading the book "The Tyrant" by American literary critic Stephen Greenblatt.
The 75-year-old is one of the best-known Shakespeare experts in the literary world. In "The Tyrant" Greenblatt examines the various ruler figures in the work of William Shakespeare. Above all, the book is a literary study - and yet Merkel may not have chosen it solely because of the Shakespeare analysis.
We give you a little insight into the holiday reading by Angela Merkel.
Angela Merkel informs about Shakespeare's Despot - and Trump?
In the first chapter Greenblatt writes: "Why are so many people misleading, even though they know they are lying to them?"
Does it sound a bit like a president of a big country who does not really care about the truth? A president with whom Angela Merkel has come up against each other in the past few years and to whom she seems to find no rightful access?
On the publication of the book, Greenblatt told the Deutschlandfunk:
Donald Trump's fingerprints can be found throughout this book because I wrote it at the moment and because that's the world I live in. "
Stephen Greenblatt. Germany radio
But the literary critic does not want his book understood as a guide in dealing with tyrants and despots understood. The name Trump never appears explicitly in the book, not even that of Vladimir Putin or Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "I do not think that Shakespeare can give us any advice on the current situation," he told Deutschlandfunk.
Still, the English poet has said "a few very important things" about cultures that, like the Western ones, are currently feeling they are going into a crisis.
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That is what Angela Merkel experiences in her holiday reading
Greenblatt analyzes for example in his book Shakespeare's historical drama "Heinrich VI." and writes how the play explains the invention of political parties - and how a confrontational party policy favors the rise of a despot.
"Henry VI." is based on the history of the Rose Wars, in which the English aristocracy York and Lancaster fought. The coats of arms of the houses, the white rose of the house of York and the red rose of the house Lancaster, became the symbols of the bloody conflict. The emblems would promote "group solidarity and hatred," writes Greenblatt in his book. "This hatred is an important part of what leads to social breakdown and finally tyranny."
On the figure of John Cades, in Part 2 of "Henry VI." Greenblatt writes: "Cade announces obvious lies about his origins, bragging about the big things he wants to do, and the crowd eagerly picks them up."
And:
"In normal times, the reputation of a public figure caught lying or simply exposing a blatant ignorance of the truth is damaged, but these are not normal times, if a neutral observer pointed to Cade's grotesque distortions, mistakes, and open lies the anger of the crowd would be directed against the doubter, not against Cade. "
source: "The Bully"
Obviously, to whom Angela Merkel will probably think on vacation when she reads these lines.