The two hiked together in South Tyrol, they visited his museum in the Dolomites: The extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner and Chancellor Angela Merkel combines a hiking friendship. How it came to Messner has now told the "Focus".
Accordingly, Merkel's husband Joachim Sauer asked the mountaineer for a holiday recommendation. "We got to know each other at a dinner when she was not yet Chancellor, but sometime, Mr. Sauer asked if I had a tip for her holiday in the Dolomites, and finally we went on our first tour together."
Messner praised the condition of the German head of government: "I do not tell too much when I say: The woman is much tougher, as most think, she easily creates 1000 meters without rest."
DPA
A photo from the summer of 2010 in South Tyrol: Joachim Sauer (l.), Angela Merkel and Reinhold Messner in conversation
Messner, 74, finds conversations with Merkel "very enriching - not only politically, but often very funny". He had met many politicians, but "not as modest as they". But he never called the Chancellor or did it only once, Messner emphasized. "I do not want to disturb her."
Already last year, Messner Merkel had confirmed in an interview, to be surprisingly fit: "She has basically no time to train for such a tour - if you take that into account, she is in good shape."
Read an interview with Reinhold Messner about the biggest tragedy and the biggest success of his life.