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ANGELA MERKEL

US spied on Chancellery ‘for decades’: Wikileaks

New documents from leaking platform Wikileaks showed on Wednesday evening that the American National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on dozens of staff at the German Chancellor's office for decades.

Published: 9 July 2015 08:31 CEST

US spied on Chancellery 'for decades': Wikileaks

The Chancellery building in Berlin. Photo: DPA

The US spying affected the governments of Angela Merkel as well as her predecessors Gerhard Schröder and Helmut Kohl, the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), which had pre-publication access to the documents, reported.

A total of 56 phone numbers are on the list released on Wednesday, including more than 20 from Chancellor Merkel's present inner circle.

Among them are Chancellery chief Peter Altmaier, Merkel's personal office head Beate Baumann, the junior minister responsible for intelligence, Klaus-Peter Fritsche, and Volker Kauder, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) group in the Bundestag.

The SZ was unable to say when exactly the list released by Wikileaks dates from. But it contains the name of the one-time Kohl adviser Johannes Ludewig, as well as those of several significant officials in the 1998 Social Democratic Party (SPD)-Green party coalition government.

Wikileaks' document release also included transcripts of phone conversations held by Merkel between 2009 and 2011.

It has been public knowledge that Merkel's personal mobile phone was tapped by the NSA since October 2013.

But last week Wikileaks revealed that the agency targeted large parts of the government beyond Merkel for surveillance, prompting Altmaier to summon the US ambassador to the Chancellery for talks.

MPs on the Bundestag (German parliament) inquiry into the NSA reacted angrily and demanded that the government take some action against the USA over the revelations.

Government spokesmen told the SZ that they were examining the files, but that it was impossible to conclusively prove they were genuine.

The paper reported that in government circles, politicians and senior officials are no longer surprised by any new information about the targets or extent of surveillance.

SEE ALSO: Merkel summons US envoy over spy claims

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Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes and smiles at a 2018 press conference in Berlin.

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes at a 2018 press conference in Berlin. Aside from plans to take "a little nap" after retiring this week, she hasn't given much away about what she might do next. Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP

The veteran chancellor has been tight-lipped about what she will do after handing over the reins to her successor Olaf Scholz on December 8th.

During her four terms in office, 67-year-old Merkel was often described as the most powerful woman in the world — but she hinted recently that she will not miss being in charge.

“I will understand very quickly that all this is now someone else’s responsibility. And I think I’m going to like that situation a lot,” she said during a trip to Washington this summer.

Famous for her stamina and her ability to remain fresh after all-night meetings, Merkel once said she can store sleep like a camel stores water.

But when asked about her retirement in Washington, she replied: “Maybe I’ll try to read something, then my eyes will start to close because I’m tired, so I’ll take a little nap, and then we’ll see where I show up.”

READ ALSO: ‘Eternal’ chancellor: Germany’s Merkel to hand over power
READ ALSO: The Merkel-Raute: How a hand gesture became a brand

‘See what happens’
First elected as an MP in 1990, just after German reunification, Merkel recently suggested she had never had time to stop and reflect on what else she might like to do.

“I have never had a normal working day and… I have naturally stopped asking myself what interests me most outside politics,” she told an audience during a joint interview with Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

“As I have reached the age of 67, I don’t have an infinite amount of time left. This means that I want to think carefully about what I want to do in the next phase of my life,” she said.

“Do I want to write, do I want to speak, do I want to go hiking, do I want to stay at home, do I want to see the world? I’ve decided to just do nothing to begin with and see what happens.”

Merkel’s predecessors have not stayed quiet for long. Helmut Schmidt, who left the chancellery in 1982, became co-editor of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit and a popular commentator on political life.

Helmut Kohl set up his own consultancy firm and Gerhard Schroeder became a lobbyist, taking a controversial position as chairman of the board of the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

German writer David Safier has imagined a more eccentric future for Merkel, penning a crime novel called Miss Merkel: Mord in der Uckermark that sees her tempted out of retirement to investigate a mysterious murder.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel forms her trademark hand gesture, the so-called “Merkel-Raute” (known in English as the Merkel rhombus, Merkel diamond or Triangle of Power). (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)

Planting vegetables
Merkel may wish to spend more time with her husband Joachim Sauer in Hohenwalde, near Templin in the former East Germany where she grew up, and where she has a holiday home that she retreats to when she’s weary.

Among the leisure activities she may undertake there is vegetable, and especially, potato planting, something that she once told Bunte magazine in an interview in 2013 that she enjoyed doing.

She is also known to be a fan of the volcanic island of D’Ischia, especially the remote seaside village of Sant’Angelo.

Merkel was captured on a smartphone video this week browsing the footwear in a Berlin sportswear store, leading to speculation that she may be planning something active.

Or the former scientist could embark on a speaking tour of the countless universities from Seoul to Tel Aviv that have awarded her honorary doctorates.

Merkel is set to receive a monthly pension of around 15,000 euros ($16,900) in her retirement, according to a calculation by the German Taxpayers’ Association.

But she has never been one for lavish spending, living in a fourth-floor apartment in Berlin and often doing her own grocery shopping.

In 2014, she even took Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to her favourite supermarket in Berlin after a bilateral meeting.

So perhaps she will simply spend some quiet nights in sipping her beloved white wine and whipping up the dish she once declared as her favourite, a “really good potato soup”.

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