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Angela Merkel, Malu Dreyer: The CDU Chancellor supports the SPD Prime Minister (who suffers from multiple sclerosis)
Photo: CHRISTOF STACHE / AFP
René Haas helps his cousin to shovel the mud out of the half-timbered house.
It has been at least partially destroyed, as has large parts of the town center of Schuld an der Ahr.
"Ms. Merkel, you are the only one who can help now," Haas claims to have called to the Chancellor as she passed the half-timbered house with her escort.
She promised that help would come, says Haas afterwards.
He would like to believe in it.
"Here in the Eifel you keep your word," says the man.
"I hope that it is the same in politics."
The Chancellor visits the flood area on the Ahr in Rhineland-Palatinate.
She chose the place where you have already developed a certain routine of visiting politicians.
Several houses swam away in debt, now the place is relatively tidy compared to other Ahr communities.
But that still means a landscape of rubble.
Merkel's visit is limited to a walk through the destroyed town center.
Only a few camera teams are allowed to accompany them, the majority of the reporters follow the tour on the screen, the SWR broadcasts live.
The transmission has something of a Tour de France stage, except that the finish is deep in the valley and not on the mountain.
The swaying camera repeatedly zooms in on the group around Merkel, who are accompanied by Rhineland-Palatinate's Prime Minister Malu Dreyer and Interior Minister Roger Lewentz, among others.
All in the midday sun, plus the accompanying engine noises from the broaching machines.
"The German language hardly knows any words for devastation"
Work will continue demonstratively during the high-ranking visit, so the Minutes will.
Visiting politicians in the crisis area is tricky, see Armin Laschet.
But the half-hour tour is not just a show event.
This is ensured by the words of compassion and analysis that Merkel and Dreyer find at the extensive press conference that followed.
It takes place in front of the town hall in the neighboring town of Adenau, Merkel and Dreyer are sitting at two outdoor tables at a distance from each other.
The on-site visit was very important, says Merkel.
She saw the pictures, but the impression on site was once again stronger, surreal and almost eerie, the Chancellor said.
"The German language hardly knows any words for the devastation that is wreaked here." Merkel pays tribute to the "incredible pain" that had come over the people of the Ahr.
She promises help to the victims of the flood.
"We stand by your side," said the Chancellor.
Germany is a strong country.
"We will oppose this force of nature - in the short term, also in the medium and long term, through a policy that takes nature and the climate into account more than we have done in recent years," said Merkel.
The cabinet wants to adopt flood aid this week, said the Chancellor.
But she also talks about the global causes of such disasters.
It is clear, according to Merkel, that "if you believe science, and I know that I do, that has something to do with climate change."
There are explanations for how such standing rains come about.
"That means we have to do more."
Dreyer points out the unprecedented task.
"We will have to do it for a long, long time to bring this region back into a state where people say I recognize my homeland again," said the Prime Minister.
"Because home is barely recognizable at the moment."
Lost everything in a matter of minutes
The mayor of guilt, Helmut Lussi, breaks his voice several times when he describes the dramatic night of last week and its consequences.
"The water has never flowed towards us here in this almost unbelievable concentration." Instead of 3 meters 60 as in the last flood, the highest level at a measuring point was 8 meters 87.
“People lost their belongings within minutes.” Initial damage estimates for guilt alone are between 31 and 48 million euros.
Such numbers, however, refer to only one small community, Guilt, that has so often been seen on the news.
However, the whole valley is ravaged and the construction costs are likely to run into billions.
The rubble is piling up in the towns, many bridges have been broken, and water, gas and electricity lines torn down.
Merkel promises to come back in August.
Until then, it is still a long time for the people of the Ahr, they are currently thinking from day to day.
Two hours after the Chancellor left the place, Anna Bläser stands in front of the local fire brigade's vehicle.
There Merkel and Dreyer asked the helpers to explain the situation to them, the wind player does not think much about their visit.
She needs help and heavy equipment.
The 61-year-old is the owner of the campsite a little upriver from guilt.
There were caravans that swam away in the Ahr in the evening, as well as small holiday homes to rent out.
They are now somewhere downstream, but there is other junk on their property.
Bläser sits down on one of the beige chairs that Merkel and Dreyer had previously occupied.
Can politics help?
"We can't do it alone." Merkel's promise for August has been memorized by Bläser.
And further: "She is no longer an option, so she probably means it really seriously."