Helmut Kohl waited for the applause to fade away, as if he wanted to savour the adulation of his supporters just one more time.
"It is, of course, a difficult evening for me," he told his audience of party activists at the Christian Democrats' headquarters in Bonn.
For many Germans, the most difficult part of yesterday evening was believing that it had actually happened - that, after 16 years in office, Helmut Kohl was no longer chancellor.
When he appeared on a post-election television programme, the presenter looked incredulous as he spoke of "the outgoing chancellor". And other party leaders who had spent 16 years chipping away at Dr Kohl, now looked glassy-eyed as they paid tribute to him.
"I'm just pleased for my 18-month-old son, that he won't have to live under Helmut Kohl," said Thomas Kruger, a Social Democrat member of the Bundestag.
Berlin Social Democrats had dozens of Havana cigars flown in for a victory party, a tribute to their candidate Gerhard Schroder, who shares a weakness for good cigars with President Clinton.
"This is a Cuban cigar," roared one activist. "A socialist cigar for a socialist government."
Socialism appeared to be the last thing on Mr Schroder's mind as he addressed supporters in Bonn, telling them that his centrist campaign obliged him to pursue modern, non-ideological policies. According to his wife, Doris, the successful candidate was still coming to terms with his victory last night.
"Of course he's happy but I think his mind is on tomorrow morning too," she said.
This morning sees the start of a round of negotiations between Mr Schroder's Social Democrats and the Greens, who are poised to become part of a federal government in Germany for the first time.
This might prove difficult for the environmentalist party, some of whose members devoted much of their political lives to attempting to dismantle the institutions they are about to take over.
The former communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) had more to celebrate than most last night, and was preparing to party in Berlin until early morning. Despite a focused campaign against it by the big parties and an electoral pact between the SPD and the Greens in some constituencies, the PDS succeeded in winning more than 5 per cent of the popular vote and having three candidates elected directly.
"I still don't believe it. I keep thinking they're going to count again and it won't be true," said PDS candidate Petra Pau.
But despite the euphoria among last night's winners, Dr Kohl was the focus of much sympathy, even from his political opponents. Everyone agreed that the Chancellor was a good loser, congratulating the victorious Mr Schroder and accepting full responsibility for his party's defeat.
He declined to say how he would spend his time now he no longer has a country to run, but insisted that he had no fears about his retirement.
"You don't have to worry that I'll have nothing to do. After many years of enormous stress, I can return to my own life, my private life. I'm looking forward to that greatly," he said. Reuters adds: Dr Kohl suffered a humiliating setback in his home district of Ludwigshafen, which he lost to the SPD candidate, Ms Doris Barnett, the local election commissioner said.
