The corona year held horror in store for us without end, but it ends in a forgiving way.
There are increasing signs that things will look up again in 2021.
And that is not only related to Corona.
A comment by Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis.
When people from Sydney to New York, from Beijing to Berlin happily welcomed the New Year twelve months ago, they still dreamed of the beginning of the “golden twenties”.
As you know, things turned out a little differently.
The corona shock hit mankind unexpectedly.
The best that can be said about the memorable 2020 is that happily it is now coming to an end, and deservedly without a sang in a quiet New Year's Eve - and that 2021 should have little trouble turning out to be a better year.
We can draw consolation from Hölderlin's famous verses from the Patmos hymn, which is going around the world these days: "But where there is danger, what is saving grows too." the zest for life stealing virus developed.
With a little luck, the vaccine will allow us to return to a life we knew and loved at some point next year.
And there is much more reason to look optimistically into the New Year: In literally the last minute, the sleepwalking politicians (new German: politicians, another “achievement” from 2020) on this side of the English Channel have a complete break between the European Mainland and friends and partners on the British Isles;
the citizens of America have shaken off a president who was more of a troublemaker than the dormant pole of the Western community of values.
And finally, booming Asia not only brought us the virus, but - in the form of a booming economy - also threw the lifebuoy for our export industry.
There is, as the Federal President said, a lot of light at the end of the tunnel - and it's not the oncoming train.
2021 comes without pomp and fireworks.
But eagerly awaited.