Angela Merkel’s Gardener and the Unexpected Mentors in Our Life

I just finished reading The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel.  I was impressed by many details of her remarkable life, including the impact made on her by her family’s gardener.

            Angela’s father was a Lutheran pastor who had volunteered to serve in Soviet-controlled East Germany during the Cold War. He and his family were sent to the city of Templin.  He was respected for his dedication and work ethic but was often an intimidating presence.  He had a strict schedule and high expectations for his daughter, and while she learned logical rigor and discipline from him, he was emotionally distant and often absent.  Her mother was busy with her own duties, and Angela was often alone.  As it turned out, she found an unexpected mentor.

            “I remember a gardener, a sturdy older man, who instilled basic trust and great calm in me,” Angela recalled much later.

            “I learned all kinds of things from him about practical life.  I learned how to identify flowers, or when the cyclamen was in season.  From him I learned how to talk to the mentally disabled. With him the atmosphere was warm and trusting, and he allowed me to eat carrots fresh from the ground.  This man awakened a connection to the earth and to nature for me…today I recognize how important time is, more important than possessions.”[i]

            Angela Merkel went on to become a nuclear chemist and a remarkably effective politician.  She was the first woman ever to head a German government – and was elected four times, serving 16 years.  She also led the European Union through many crises, standing up to Vladimir Putin time and again, and was a leading spokesperson for democracy and international cooperation.  Her quiet wisdom, analytical abilities, and patience enabled her to either persuade or outlast many of her opponents.  Throughout her career, she would return to the forests and land of Templin for rest and renewal. Apparently, the lessons she learned from the gardener — ”basic trust,” “great calm,” a deep connection to the earth, and how to talk to anyone respectfully – became hallmarks of her own character.

            This led me to think about people in our lives beyond family who have had a lasting impact on us.  One person who comes to mind for me is an old painting contractor I worked for, Tom Childress.

            As a teenager, I earned money in the summer and on breaks by learning to paint houses.  I often worked on my own, but twice worked for painting contractors.

            One was a big property manager. He paid us $2.50/hour, was often impatient, and more than once missed our payday because he was out of town.

            And then there was Tom.  Old guy with white hair, always dressed in white, paint-speckled overalls who drove a faded-yellow Dodge camper truck.  He was fond of Busch Bavarian beer, and a Styrofoam cooler with a six-pack was always by his side. Tom paid $4/hour.  He patiently taught me all he knew about painting.  Friday was payday, and he often went to the bank at lunch time and came back with a roll of 20s to pay us in cash.  More than once, he’d let us off early on Fridays after paying us for the full day.  

            I worked hard for Tom.  And I learned from him what it’s like to work for someone who genuinely respects their employees.  (Though I have yet to gain an appreciation for Busch Bavarian.)

            I think of Mr. Kenley, a high school English teacher who must have gone through many boxes of red pens.  At first, I resented all the corrections and questions he wrote on every assignment. But in time I realized he was doing his best to make us better writers. After my first year away at college, I went back to his classroom to thank him.

            And something one of my Spanish teachers said still lingers with me.  One day in class, after sharing a personal story, he said, “You know, in life we need two kinds of experiences: some to make us proud and some to keep us humble.  We need both to be a real person.”  It didn’t have anything to do with Spanish, but I’ve never forgotten it.

            I don’t know if Angela Merkel’s gardener lived to see her become Chancellor of Germany.  I’m guessing he could not have imagined that the time he spent with her would shape her character and career, and through her, the fate of democracy in the modern world.  We never know the impact we have on others.

            Who taught you lasting lessons along your way?

Painting: Camille Pissarro, The Gardener: Old Peasant with Cabbage, 1895

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[i] The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angel Merkel, by Kati Marton, pg. 7