ONE of Germany’s longest-serving chancellors, Angela Merkel, has said goodybe to politics after a fond send-off from her colleagues. The outgoing chancellor was applauded by her colleagues and rivals in parliament as she left 16 consecutive years in power behind in Berlin on Wednesday.

For the past 16 years, in a world full of upheaval and weightier concerns, Germans have at least one bright fixture: their chancellor’s colorful suit jackets, and occasional plunging neckline at the opera.

A point of much commentary and amusement to sartorial Germans the former chancellor herself has remained unmoved. Her no-nonsense approach to governing, which has generally been praised both at home and globally, has reflected her practical take on fashion.

“For a man, wearing a dark blue suit for a hundred days in a row is no problem at all, but if I wear the same blazer four times in two weeks, citizens write to me,” Angela Merkel once told Zeit newspaper.

For 16 years, Merkel has met global leaders and citizens, attended parliament and gone about her business in an array of smart jackets, the same in shape, different in color.

She has also attended almost every annual Wagner opera festival in Bayreuth in southern Germany with her husband during her summer holiday, a couple of times in a low neckline which got her onto the front pages of the tabloids, where opera wouldn’t normally feature.

Wagner’s work has played to sold out crowds at the festival since the mid-1950s, with eager opera enthusiasts often waiting as long as 10 years for tickets to the Bayreuth Festspielhaus theater. The annual opera frenzy is a highlight of German cultural life.

Another cultural occasion in Norway saw Merkel sporting a plunging neckline at an Oslo opera house that created a media sensation in Germany at the time.

“Now she can relax and be a girl and can do as she does in Bayreuth. I think she can do it all, I mean she is a woman and is a big girl now!” German fashion designer Guido Maria Kretschmer told Reuters during Berlin Fashion Week in September, after Armin Laschet was elected by the Christian Democratic Union(CDU) party as Merkel’s successor.

“What should she have worn other than her ‘look’ she was always with men, was she supposed to come in a skirt suit? I think it was good, the way she did it. Now she can wear her necklaces or hang out in her tracksuit, or just go wild if she wants. I think she can do what she wants, wear a dirndl (southern German traditional dress) maybe there’s a look she wants to try out. I think she can do anything she wants, it was the right look for her time (as chancellor),” he added.

But the woman from the former East Germany has done more than her detractors ever expected and she almost overtook her former mentor Helmut Kohl to become Germany’s longest-serving chancellor. Having led Germany for 16 years and 16 days, Merkel has narrowly missed on becoming the longest serving post-war chancellor, trailing Kohl by mere 10 days.

Woman’s rights activist and publicist Alice Schwarzer said she was proud of how Merkel has held her own among powerful men: “There is a joke in Germany: A small boy asks, ‘mom, can men also become chancellor?’ One person proved it and now it is out there and no one can take that away now.”

Despite the fact that Merkel wears unfussy trouser suits that downplay her femininity, Schwarzer said Merkel still had a certain feminine charm that she used in dealings with world leaders.

“We are women at the end of the day. And she tried to downplay this as much as possible; with her dress style. Matter-of-fact, comfortable, jacket and trousers. Flat shoes. No false coquetry. And yet at the same time I find that she has a very specific charm. I would say she is somewhere between girl and comrade. She has something girlish about her and is more than able to flirt!” she said.

The daughter of a protestant pastor, Merkel grew up in East Germany before taking the helm of a predominantly male, Catholic, western German party the CDU. Armed with a doctorate in quantum chemistry, Merkel had adopted a pragmatic, problem-solving approach to government, guiding Germany, and Europe. (SD-Agencies)