Christian Schlemmer, a farmer listening to Ms Merkel's speech, was unworried by the lack of partisan fireworks.

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In the future, some designer not yet born will be sending models down the runway in gowns owing something to Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet.

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"It was a heady experience, " she went on, referring not just to the sense of well-being she felt providing her pets fresh air, but also the fame when Hammacher Schlemmer, among others, started carrying her inventions.

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