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A brush with celebrity is a highlight for a waiter serving any high-profile event, but it also means the stakes are higher. Surely one German waiter wishes his hand were steadier now after he spilled a tray of beer glasses onto German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an Ash Wednesday event last week in Demmin.

The waiter, reported only as Martin D., was recruited to carry the beer tray after a colleague got cold feet and passed off the duties to him. Because Murphy's Law was in full effect, everything went according to plan until he leaned in to place a glass in front of Angela Merkel, arguably the EU's most powerful politician.

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That's when the 21-year-old lost control of the tray, sending the five glasses of cold beer onto Merkel's back. Unfortunately for Martin, the cameras were rolling. Fortunately, they didn't manage to catch Martin's loud expletive post-debacle.

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"I was shoved from behind, and tried to catch the beers, but it was too late," Martin explained to Germany's Bild newspaper. Indeed, his story appears to check out: a man in a black suit squeezed by Martin as he balanced the tray of brews, appearing to bump him before setting off the chain reaction. Merkel seemed to scowl at first as aides rushed in with towels to clean up the mess. But he said she took it surprisingly well. "She turned around, grinned at me, and even though she was wet, went to the speaker's stage shortly afterwards," Martin said.

• Nick Carbone
• A brush with celebrity is a highlight for a waiter serving any high-profile event, but it also means the stakes are higher