Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel (b. 1954) is a German politician and former research scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021, becoming the first woman and the first person raised in the former East Germany to hold the office.^[1] Widely regarded as one of the most influential leaders of her era, she guided Germany through a succession of European and global crises and was frequently described as the de facto leader of the European Union.^[2]

Early life and education

Angela Dorothea Merkel was born Angela Kasner on 17 July 1954 in Hamburg. Within weeks of her birth her family moved to Brandenburg in communist East Germany, where her father, a Lutheran pastor, had accepted a parish; she grew up in the town of Templin, north of Berlin.^[1]

An academically gifted student, she studied physics at the University of Leipzig from 1973 to 1978. She went on to earn a doctorate for a thesis in quantum chemistry and worked as a research scientist at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin.^[3]

Entry into politics

Merkel entered public life amid the collapse of the East German state in 1989. After German reunification she joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and won a seat in the Bundestag in the first all-German elections of 1990. Chancellor Helmut Kohl appointed her Minister for Women and Youth in 1991 and later Minister for the Environment, and in 2000 she was elected leader of the CDU.^[1]

Chancellorship

Following the 2005 federal election, Merkel became Germany's first female chancellor, initially leading a grand coalition and, in later terms, governments formed with various partners. Her sixteen years in office spanned the global financial crisis, the eurozone sovereign-debt crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic.^[2]

In 2015 she adopted a comparatively open stance toward asylum seekers during Europe's migration crisis, a position summed up by her phrase "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do this"). Known for a pragmatic, consensus-seeking style, she was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2015 and repeatedly topped Forbes's ranking of the world's most powerful women.^[4]

Legacy

Merkel chose not to seek re-election in 2021 and left office when Olaf Scholz succeeded her as chancellor in December of that year, ending one of the longest chancellorships in modern German history.^[1] Her tenure was recognised with numerous international honours, including the Charlemagne Prize, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and India's Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. She remains a defining figure of early twenty-first-century European politics.