It was shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday, March 22, when Angela Merkel called a break after hours of deadlocked discussion with her deputy and Germany's 16 state premiers on how to halt a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After winning international plaudits for its initial response to the pandemic last year, Germany was struggling. The number of patients in intensive care was close to the peak of the first wave a year earlier, and the vaccine rollout was proceeding at a painfully slow pace.
Merkel, in the final months of her 16-year rule, told the premiers she wanted to extend a nationwide lockdown and tighten restrictions on movement, effectively confining Germans to their homes for the Easter holidays.