Overview

• Angela Merkel received the inaugural honorary prize from Media Control in Baden-Baden for her memoir ‘Freiheit.’
• Her 700-page memoir sold over 100,000 copies on its first day and nearly one million across Germany, Austria and Switzerland, making it the decade’s best-selling biography.
• In her acceptance speech, Merkel backed Israeli civil society and warned against equating the nation’s people with its current government.
• She emphasized that security must remain central to German policy given threats from Hamas and Iran.
• Merkel noted Baden-Baden’s distance from Berlin and thanked Bundestag President Julia Klöckner for traveling from the capital to deliver her laudation.