Germany's Merkel Injured on Ski Trip

Updated Jan. 6, 2014 9:26 a.m. ETBERLIN—Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a minor pelvis fracture during her Christmas cross-country skiing trip in Switzerland, and will have to govern Germany mostly while lying down for the next three weeks, her spokesman said.
The injury was announced only on Monday, after doctors told Ms. Merkel on Friday that what she thought was just bruising was actually an “incomplete fracture.”
She will work mostly from home and attend just a few meetings in Berlin over the next three weeks, including Wednesday’s cabinet meeting. She has canceled a visit to Poland scheduled for Wednesday and a meeting the next day with Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, said her spokesman, Steffen Seibert. Her Christian Democratic Union also canceled a high-level meeting scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen giving a news conference after a European Union summit in December. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

“While cross-country skiing during her Christmas vacation, the chancellor suffered from a serious contusion in connection with a so-called infraction, an incomplete fracture of her left rear pelvis. This requires her to lie down as much as possible during the next three weeks or use a walking aid,” Mr. Seibert told reporters at a regular government news conference.
Analysts expect the injury to have little impact on Ms. Merkel’s work. “This is no problem because governing will continue,” said Wichard Woyke, a professor of political science at the University of Münster.
She joins a list of chancellors who have run Germany from bed. Konrad Adenauer, who was 73 when he was first elected chancellor in 1949, suffered from chronic bronchitis, had a heart attack that was kept secret from the public, and in 1955 contracted life-threatening pneumonia after a trip to Moscow.
Willy Brandt was repeatedly absent from the chancellery in the early 1970s, suffering from depression, while Helmut Schmidt spent time in the hospital after getting a pacemaker in 1981. Helmut Kohl had several operations for a prostate condition. Ms. Merkel worked from home in 2011 while recovering from knee surgery.
The announcement of Ms. Merkel’s injury comes about a week after another famous German, Michael Schumacher, seven-time world champion of Formula One motor racing, suffered life-threatening head injuries in a skiing accident in the French Alps.
Ms. Merkel fell while skiing cross-country at low speed in Engadin, in the Swiss Alps, said Mr. Seibert, who didn’t provide the exact day of the injury. Ms. Merkel originally believed the injury to be a simple bruising and was at the chancellery on Dec. 30 to record her televised New Year address, during which she showed no sign of discomfort.
But after consulting with her doctors again on Friday, she learned that the injury was a minor fracture, her spokesman said.
Julia Seifert, an orthopedic surgeon at a Berlin hospital and vice president of the Federation of German Surgeons, said it isn’t unusual for a slight fracture to be detected only after a few days because it often can’t be identified on a X-ray. The injury can be “very painful” but it is likely to mend within six to eight weeks, she said, adding: “Long-term consequences are unlikely.”
Write to Andrea Thomas at andrea.thomas@wsj.com

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