Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Kasner, later known as Angela Merkel, was born on 17 July 1954 in the Eimsbüttel district of Hamburg, West Germany. Her father, a Lutheran pastor, secured a post in the East German town of Quitzow when she was an infant, prompting the family’s relocation to the German Democratic Republic where she grew up in the countryside near Brandenburg. Excelling in mathematics and languages, she learned Russian fluently in school and earned a perfect Abitur before studying physics at Karl‑Marx‑Universität Leipzig, later receiving a doctorate in quantum chemistry from the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry in Berlin‑Adlershof in 1986. After the fall of the Berlin Wall she entered politics through the short‑lived Democratic Beginning party, becoming deputy spokesperson for the first democratic East German government in 1990. Following reunification she was elected to the Bundestag representing Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern, where she served continuously until 2021. Merkel rose rapidly, first as Minister for Women and Youth (1991‑1994) and then as Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (1994‑1998) under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. After the CDU’s 1998 defeat she became party secretary‑general, then the first female chair of the CDU (2000‑2018), and ultimately the first woman and first East‑German to be elected Chancellor of Germany, a post she held from 2005 to 2021. Her chancellorship spanned four election cycles, during which she steered Germany through the 2008 financial crisis, the Eurozone sovereign‑debt crisis, the 2015 migrant influx, and the COVID‑19 pandemic, while promoting the Energiewende, European integration, and a pragmatic foreign‑policy stance that balanced transatlantic ties with cautious engagement with Russia.** Renowned for her calm, analytical demeanor and a reputation as “Mutti” to many Germans, Merkel’s legacy includes transforming Germany into a leading voice of the European Union, reshaping global climate policy, and establishing a model of centrist, science‑informed governance that earned her repeated listings among the world’s most powerful and respected leaders.