'Merkel diamond' takes centre stage in German election campaign

It's a question that nags at many politicians: what to do with their hands.

The British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was famously given a handbag by her style adviser. Germany's Angela Merkel, who has admitted feeling occasionally gauche, has her own solution: she rests her hands in front of her stomach, in what has become known as the "Merkel-Raute" or Merkel diamond.

"There was always the question, what to do with your arms, and that's how it came about," she told the women's magazine Brigitte (video), in a typically pragmatic explanation earlier this year. "It contains a certain symmetry."

The Merkel diamond is probably one of the most recognisable hand gestures in the world, which is why her Christian Democrat party (CDU) has decided to use the image on a massive poster at Berlin's central railway station, the Hauptbahnhof, in the lead up to the September 22 elections.

Compiled from 2,150 tiny pictures of her supporters, the image, stretched across 70 metres by 20 metres, stands alone without a logo. Round the corner, on an orange poster, are emblazoned the words: "Germany's future in good hands."

Analysts have said it is the pinnacle so far of the party's attempts to cash in on the Merkel personality cult.

"This carries to extremes the personalisation strategy of the CDU in the final weeks before the election," wrote political commentator Philipp Wittrock on Spiegel Online. He pointed out the heavy symbolism of its location: next to the central station and close to the seat of power in Berlin, the chancellery and the Reichstag building, home of the Bundestag.

It arguably also marks a turning point in the way Merkel is perceived. In the past she has faced much ridicule for her looks and presentation. There was even a spoof ad for an industrial-strength adhesive which used the Merkel hands image and asked: "How does she take off her jacket?"

Now, like her nickname "Mutti" (Mummy), the hands have been turned to a strength. "In der Raute liegt die Kraft" ("The strength is in the diamond"), wrote Die Welt on Tuesday in a front-page commentary on the poster, remarking that the Merkel diamond needed no explanation and stood for both "the calm and power of a chancellor". An iconic symbol of power.

In the past the Social Democrats have been quick to attack the CDU for encouraging a "personality cult, Cuban-style". They can be expected to respond again to what is said to be the largest ever campaign poster in the history of German elections.