Chancellor Angela Merkel is known for that no-nonsense, stoic approach to life that we’ve come to associate with Germany.

She’s held office for the last 14 years, and during that time has never shown stress and rarely taken a sick day.

So when she was filmed visibly shaking during a military parade welcoming the new Ukrainian president to Berlin, everyone was very concerned, reports The Telegraph.

First, the footage:

Now for some speculation.

As is usually the case when politicians exhibit any kind of illness, online commentators have descended on Merkel, with alternative explanations ranging from the unlikely (she might have Parkinsons; you’d see a slower, less pronounced shake emanating from one side of the body) to the truly ridiculous (she hates her own country’s national anthem and couldn’t bear to listen to it.)

Merkel held a press conference after the parade where she suggested that it was all due to dehydration.

“I’ve drunk three glasses of water in the meantime, clearly that was what caused it. And in that respect I’m doing much better,” she said. Colleagues were quick to point out that Germany is in the middle of a serious heat wave with temperatures reaching 30 degrees centigrade.

Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick weighed in with a different theory.

“I read that there’d been some mention of dehydration but I don’t think it looks like that to me. You wouldn’t normally get shaking like that with dehydration. If you were starving, maybe, but thirst wouldn’t do that to you.”

Dr Fitzpatrick is mystified by the idea that Merkel says she was fine after a couple of glasses of water. “Honestly, to me it looks like an infection. Sometimes when you have an infection, you’ll find the body will shake.”

Such rigors are caused by a fever: when the body experiences a sudden increase in temperature, the sufferer will feel like they’re freezing and start to shiver very intensely.

He also says it could be malaria, but that is unlikely.

Whatever it was, I’m sure she’ll power through it.

[source:telegraph]