Merkel-Raute

In Jan Philipp Gloger's staging of The Flying Dutchman, which premiered during the 2013 Bayreuth Festival, the Merkel-Raute is used as a criticism of capitalism: During the performance, the gesture is shown as the distinctive mark of a nameless, synchronized elite of bankers and managers.

[5] When used by her own party (the conservative Christian Democratic Union), the gesture was intended as a political symbol for Merkel's (presumed) unagitated[clarification needed] leadership.

On 2 September 2013, near the climax of the campaign for the 2013 federal election, the CDU unveiled a giant banner greeting travellers at Berlin Hauptbahnhof, which was displayed on two sides of a hotel building under construction, taking up a total space of nearly 2,400 square metres (26,000 sq ft).

[9][10] It also produced posters[11] featuring a stylised version of the Merkel-Raute above the words "Cool bleiben und Kanzlerin wählen" ("Keep calm and vote for the Chancellor" or "Stay cool and choose the Chancellor") a play on the British wartime slogan Keep Calm and Carry On; these posters were also made into various articles of clothing, such as T-shirts and hoodies.

[19][20] The emoticon <> referencing the Merkel-Raute has also been adopted by the CDU as a symbol of Merkel in its Internet communications, even after the end of the 2013 election campaign.

For example, it organised a competition on its Facebook page in which people were encouraged to comment with "<>" in order to win a bag printed with the aforementioned campaign poster.