Berlin, 29 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Former chancellor Angela Merkel will be honoured with Germany's highest possible award, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier's office confirmed on Tuesday, after a report by Stern magazine.

So far, only former chancellors Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl have received this honour. All three politicians are from the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

The award, which will have a special design, will be presented in April, the office said.

Above this award level there is only the special level of the Grand Cross, which is awarded to every German president upon taking office and also to foreign heads of state.

Merkel was chancellor from 2005 to 2021. According to Stern, her family and many political friends will attend the ceremony.

Invitations have been sent to CDU party colleagues Thomas de Maizière and Peter Altmaier, among others. She also invited her first Social Democratic Party (SPD) vice chancellor, her government spokesman and close aides.

No one from the current CDU leadership or from its sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) or the business-oriented Free Democratic Party (FDP) is on the list, the magazine wrote.

But former East German civil rights activist Rainer Eppelmann, actor Ulrich Matthes and ex-national football coach Jürgen Klinsmann, are.