Merkel’s punky sendoff

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been honoured with a traditional military musical performance and march in front of the country’s political elite – with a modern twist. The event at the Defence Ministry in Berlin involved a parade and a brass band playing three songs of Merkel’s choice. The first was

released in 1974 by punk singer Nina Hagen – who, like Merkel, grew up in the former East Germany. Merkel explained that the song was ‘‘a highlight of my youth’’ and was ‘‘set in a region that was in my former constituency’’ on the Baltic Sea. One of the other pieces chosen by Merkel, the daughter of a Protestant pastor, was an 18thcentury Christian hymn, Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. Merkel remains caretaker chancellor until her successor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, is sworn in next week.