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Politics

Top German election candidates and their role models

Sabine Oelze cmk
September 12, 2017

Inspiring politicians may serve as role models, but they also have their own heroes. Chancellor Angela Merkel has long admired a two-time Nobel laureate. What about some of the other top candidates?

https://p.dw.com/p/2jn5C
Angela Merkel
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Gentsch

With her choice of a physicist/chemist as role model, Chancellor Merkel, head of the Christian Democrats, ended up being the exception to the rule. All five other top candidates in Germany's upcoming federal election named politicians as their role models.

Read more: What you need to know about Germany's political parties 

Martin Schulz (Social Democratic Party), Christian Lindner (Free Democratic Party) and Sahra Wagenknecht (The Left Party) look to great historical leaders from their own parties as inspiration.

Cem Özdemir (Alliance '90/The Greens) also sees a leading SPD figure as being worthy of praise, while Alexander Gauland (Alternative for Germany) has deeply immersed himself in French history.

To find out more about political role models in the German election campaign, click through the photo gallery above or watch the video below.

Who is Angela Merkel's role model?

Who is Martin Schulz's role model?

Who is Cem Özdemir's role model?

Who is Sahra Wagenknecht's role model?

Who is Christian Lindner's role model?

Who is Alexander Gauland's role model?

Who is Joachim Herrmann's role model?