Bonn. Angela Merkel’s tenure as federal chancellor is no longer history – but so is her cell phone. The old Merkel Siemens S55 mobile phone belongs to the History House Foundation collection. The team of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media drew attention to this on Twitter.
According to the organization, the mobile phone is one of the most important devices in the work of the consultant. The target symbolically stands for “a new kind of communication in politics”. In addition to phone calls, it enabled SMS communication, which politicians also used extensively in the mid-2000s. Merkel used the cell phone from 2003 to 2005 – also during the period when the chancellor was wiretapped by the National Security Agency.
In the Not Without My Cell Phone column in 2007, Die Welt discussed the importance of cell phones to Angela Merkel. And in it he says: “The most prominent opinion was presented by the advisor. In previous years it would disappear during breaks – a cell phone between hand and hairstyle.”
In the meantime, she takes a different approach to the cell phone – she writes with both hands. Merkel once explained why she loves to text with the following words: “It saves time because all the polite phrases are gone, ‘Hello! “,” How are you? “,” where are you now? – and because the sender no longer has to reveal what situation he is in and the receiver can choose when to respond.
This description seems outdated today in the age of smartphones and messaging apps. The times when cell phones and SMS were still innovative are, after all, history.
The Haus der Geschichte transmits contemporary German history after 1945 in four museums in Bonn, Berlin and Leipzig as well as online.
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