In the corona pandemic

German president took refuge in an attic room

Germany's Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (archive photo)

(Bild: APA/AFP/MICHELE TANTUSSI)

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier took refuge in an attic room in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. He did not want to endanger his wife, to whom he had donated a kidney.

"During quarantine, I retreated to the attic with a few books and a laptop and camped out on an air mattress. My wife and I kept out of each other's way in the house to avoid any possible danger to her health," Steinmeier told the magazine "Spiegel".

One of his security officers, with whom he traveled by car from Zwickau to Berlin, had contracted the coronavirus in early March 2020. He therefore went into quarantine in accordance with the applicable rules. As a transplant patient, his wife Elke Büdenbender was particularly at risk due to lowered immunity.

In quarantine, I retreated to the attic with a few books and a laptop and camped out on an air mattress.

Steinmeier blickt auf die Corona-Pandemie zurück.

"Not hit as hard as others"
The German head of state admitted that he had not been hit as hard as others who did not have a chamber for the quarantine period. Nevertheless, it was isolation. Fittingly, he read the book "1918: The World in Fever" by Laura Spinney. "It's quite something when you're reminded during a swelling pandemic that the so-called Spanish flu of 1918 claimed more victims in just four months than the First World War did in four years."

He learned that there had been centuries of practice in combating epidemics. This also included contact restrictions, said the politician.