MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Angela Merkel served Germany as chancellor for 16 years, the only woman who's ever held that office. She grew up in Communist East Germany during the Cold War. As an adult, leading a unified Germany, she worked to promote democratic ideals at home and abroad. When she left office in 2021, she warned Germans not to take their democracy for granted. She said, quote, "we must work for it together again and again every day." When I spoke to her last week, she had a similar warning for Americans.
Anything you would like Americans to hear directly from you as we grapple with a new chapter in our leadership here?
ANGELA MERKEL: (Through interpreter) I wish that there are many citizens of the United States of America that protect the institutions of the United States - the courts, the justice system, the free elections - that many people stand up for compromises, for the fact that we can sort out disputes peacefully and in ways of good discussions and that we get good solutions beyond political borders because that speechlessness - the capability not to speak anymore and to insult each other - I think this is a step backwards in civilization. And I would think that many people should stand up against that and put signs up against that.
KELLY: Angela Merkel. She led Germany as chancellor from 2005 to 2021. Her new memoir, out today, is titled, "Freedom." Chancellor Merkel, thank you.
MERKEL: (Speaking German). Thank you very much.
KELLY: And elsewhere in today's program, Chancellor Merkel reflects on women in power and what it was like to tangle with the likes of Vladimir Putin.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAM EVIAN'S "CAROLINA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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