Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel
Born	Angela Dorothea Kasner 17 7, 1954
Birthplace	Hamburg, West Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Politician, physical chemist
Title	Chancellor of Germany (2005–2021)
Known for	Chancellor of Germany (2005–2021), first woman to hold the office
Education	Doctorate in quantum chemistry (1986), University of Leipzig / Academy of Sciences of the GDR
Awards	Presidential Medal of Freedom, Charlemagne Prize

Angela Dorothea Merkel (née Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021, making her one of the longest-serving heads of government in modern European history. She is the only woman to have held the German chancellorship and the only chancellor of reunified Germany to have been raised in the former East Germany. Born in Hamburg in West Germany, Merkel moved with her family to East Germany as an infant, where she grew up and pursued an academic career in the sciences, earning a doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986. She entered politics in the wake of the democratic revolutions that swept through Eastern Europe in 1989, rising rapidly within the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) under the patronage of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. She served as Leader of the CDU from 2000 to 2018 and as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 before being elected chancellor following the 2005 federal election. Over the course of four terms in office, Merkel navigated Germany through a series of defining crises — including the 2008 global financial crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis, and the 2015 European migrant crisis — while maintaining Germany's central role in European Union and NATO affairs. Her political style, characterised by pragmatism and caution, shaped German and European politics for over a decade and a half.

Early Life

Angela Dorothea Kasner was born on 17 July 1954 in Hamburg, in what was then West Germany. Her father, Horst Kasner, was a Lutheran pastor, and her mother, Herlind, was a teacher of Latin and English. Shortly after Angela's birth, the family made the unusual decision to move from West Germany to East Germany, where Horst Kasner took up a pastorate in the town of Quitzow, in the Brandenburg region. The family later settled in Templin, a small town in the Uckermark district of Brandenburg, where Angela spent most of her childhood and adolescence.

Growing up in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the daughter of a Protestant clergyman placed the Kasner family in a complicated social position. The officially atheist East German state viewed the church with suspicion, though Horst Kasner's move to the East was motivated by a sense of religious duty. Angela adapted to the realities of life in the GDR, becoming a member of the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend, or FDJ), the communist state's official youth movement. Membership in the FDJ was nearly universal among East German young people and was considered a prerequisite for advancement in education and professional life.

Despite the political constraints of living in East Germany, Merkel excelled academically. She demonstrated particular aptitude in mathematics and the natural sciences, as well as in Russian, a compulsory subject in East German schools. Her proficiency in Russian would later prove useful in her political career, notably in her dealings with Russian leaders. Merkel has spoken about growing up behind the Iron Curtain, describing both the limitations and the formative experiences of life in the GDR, including the constant awareness of surveillance and ideological conformity that characterised the state.

Education

Merkel pursued higher education in physics, enrolling at the University of Leipzig, where she studied from 1973 to 1978. She graduated with a diploma in physics, having focused on theoretical and physical chemistry. After completing her undergraduate studies, Merkel moved to East Berlin, where she took up a position at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR. There she conducted research and worked towards her doctoral degree.

In 1986, Merkel was awarded a doctorate in quantum chemistry for her thesis on the mechanisms of decay reactions involving simple hydrocarbon bonds. Her doctoral work reflected the rigorous scientific training she had received in the East German academic system. She continued to work as a research scientist at the Academy of Sciences until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, at which point her career path shifted dramatically from science to politics.

Career

Entry into Politics (1989–1998)

The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the subsequent democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe opened new possibilities for citizens of the former East Germany. Merkel entered politics during this transformative period, joining the newly formed political party Democratic Awakening (Demokratischer Aufbruch), one of several civic movements that emerged during the peaceful revolution in the GDR. She briefly served as the party's press spokeswoman.

Following the first and only free elections in the GDR in March 1990, the government of Lothar de Maizière was formed, and Merkel was appointed as deputy spokeswoman for this first democratically elected East German government. This transitional government oversaw the process of German reunification, which was formally completed on 3 October 1990. In the aftermath of reunification, Democratic Awakening merged with the CDU, and Merkel became a member of the larger party.

In the December 1990 federal elections — the first all-German elections since reunification — Merkel won a seat in the Bundestag representing the constituency of Stralsund–Rügen–Grimmen in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Her rise within the CDU was rapid, in large part due to the patronage of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who recognised in her a political talent and a useful representative of the former East Germany within the party. Kohl referred to her as "das Mädchen" (the girl), a label that, while condescending, also reflected her status as his protégée.

In 1991, at the age of 36, Merkel was appointed to the federal cabinet as Minister for Women and Youth. In this role, she gained her first experience of ministerial governance and began to establish herself as a competent administrator. In 1994, following the CDU's victory in that year's federal election, she was promoted to the more senior position of Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. In this capacity, she oversaw Germany's environmental policy during a period of growing concern over climate change and nuclear energy, and she presided over the first United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP1) held in Berlin in 1995.

The CDU's defeat in the 1998 federal election, which brought Gerhard Schröder and the Social Democrats to power, marked a turning point in Merkel's political trajectory. Helmut Kohl's long tenure as chancellor came to an end, and the party entered a period of turmoil, particularly after a party financing scandal implicated Kohl and several other senior CDU figures.

CDU Leadership and Opposition (1998–2005)

In the wake of the CDU's 1998 electoral defeat, Merkel was elected as the party's general secretary, a position that placed her at the centre of the party's organisational apparatus. The CDU party financing scandal that erupted in late 1999 severely damaged the reputations of Kohl and his successor as party leader, Wolfgang Schäuble. Merkel made the decisive and bold move of publicly breaking with Kohl, writing an open letter in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in December 1999 calling on the party to move beyond its former leader. This act of political independence established her as a figure willing to challenge the party's old guard.

In April 2000, Merkel was elected leader of the CDU, becoming the first woman and the first person from the former East Germany to hold that position. Two years later, following the CDU/CSU's failure to unseat Schröder in the 2002 federal election (in which Edmund Stoiber of the CSU served as the union's chancellor candidate), Merkel became Leader of the Opposition in the Bundestag. She used this period to consolidate her control over the party and to position herself as the CDU/CSU's chancellor candidate for the next election.

First Term as Chancellor (2005–2009)

The 2005 federal election was called after Chancellor Schröder deliberately lost a vote of confidence in the Bundestag, seeking a new mandate from the electorate amid declining poll numbers for his coalition government. The election result was closer than many had anticipated: the CDU/CSU won 35.2 percent of the vote, only narrowly ahead of the SPD's 34.2 percent. Neither the centre-right nor the centre-left bloc secured a majority, and after weeks of negotiations, Merkel formed a grand coalition with the SPD, with the CSU as the CDU's Bavarian sister party.

On 22 November 2005, Angela Merkel was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, becoming the first woman and the youngest person to hold the office since the founding of the Federal Republic. She was also the first chancellor of reunified Germany to have been raised in the former East Germany. Her accession to the chancellorship was noted internationally as a landmark event in German and European politics.

During her first term, Merkel focused on economic reform, fiscal consolidation, and strengthening Germany's role within the European Union. In the first half of 2007, Germany held the rotating presidency of the European Council, and Merkel played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon, which reformed the institutional framework of the EU. She also oversaw the drafting and adoption of the Berlin Declaration of March 2007, marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome.

The latter portion of Merkel's first term was dominated by the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis. Merkel's government responded with a combination of bank bailouts and fiscal stimulus measures. She was instrumental in negotiating the 2008 European Union stimulus plan, which focused on infrastructure spending and public investment to counteract the Great Recession. At the same time, Merkel emphasised the importance of fiscal discipline, a stance that would become a defining feature of her approach to European economic governance in subsequent years.

In foreign policy during her first term, Merkel pursued a course that emphasised international cooperation within both the EU and NATO frameworks. She initiated efforts toward a reset in relations with Russia while also strengthening transatlantic ties. However, at the 2008 Bucharest summit, Merkel actively blocked the extension of NATO Membership Action Plans to Ukraine and Georgia, a decision that would be the subject of significant retrospective debate in light of Russia's later military actions against both countries.

Second Term (2009–2013)

In the 2009 federal election, the CDU/CSU won 33.8 percent of the vote, and Merkel was able to form a coalition government with the Free Democratic Party (FDP), an alliance more ideologically aligned with the CDU than the previous grand coalition with the SPD. This centre-right coalition pursued a policy agenda that included tax reform and efforts to promote economic competitiveness.

Merkel's second term was heavily shaped by the European sovereign debt crisis, which began in late 2009 and intensified through 2010 and 2011 as several eurozone member states — notably Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain — faced severe fiscal difficulties. Merkel's response to the crisis was characterised by an insistence on austerity measures and structural reforms as conditions for financial assistance, a position that drew both support and criticism across Europe. Germany, as the eurozone's largest economy, played a central role in the series of bailout packages negotiated for affected countries. Critics, particularly in Southern Europe, accused Merkel of imposing excessive austerity that deepened economic recessions in those countries, while supporters argued that fiscal discipline was necessary to restore market confidence and long-term stability.

During this period, Merkel's word choice itself became a subject of public debate in Germany. Her frequent use of the word "alternativlos" (meaning "without alternative") to describe her government's policy positions was criticised as dismissive of democratic debate. In 2010, a German linguistic society selected "alternativlos" as the "Unwort des Jahres" (un-word of the year), arguing that it was an anti-democratic formulation that shut down legitimate discussion of policy alternatives.

On matters of cultural policy and national identity, Merkel made headlines in October 2010 when she declared that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany had "utterly failed" ("Multikulti ist absolut gescheitert"). The statement sparked debate both domestically and internationally about immigration, integration, and the place of Islam in German society. She also defended free speech in September 2010 when she spoke in support of a Danish cartoonist who had faced threats over depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, while simultaneously condemning the burning of the Quran.

Third Term (2013–2017)

The 2013 federal election represented a significant personal triumph for Merkel. The CDU/CSU won 41.5 percent of the vote, its best result in over two decades — a result that fell just short of an outright majority in the Bundestag. The FDP, Merkel's coalition partner, failed to clear the five percent threshold required for representation in the Bundestag, losing all of its seats. As a result, Merkel formed a second grand coalition with the SPD.

The emergence of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), founded in 2013, was in part attributed to dissatisfaction with Merkel's handling of the eurozone crisis and what some voters perceived as the CDU's drift towards the political centre under her leadership. The Süddeutsche Zeitung described the new party as an "alternative thanks to Merkel," highlighting how her pragmatic, centrist approach had opened political space on the right.

Merkel's third term was most significantly defined by her response to the European migrant crisis of 2015. In late August and September of that year, Merkel made the decision to keep Germany's borders open to refugees, many of them fleeing the civil war in Syria. Her statement "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do this") became emblematic of the policy. Germany received over one million asylum seekers in 2015, an unprecedented number that placed enormous strain on the country's administrative and social infrastructure. The decision was both praised internationally as an act of humanitarian leadership and criticised domestically as reckless and poorly planned. The political fallout contributed to the growth of the AfD and created tensions within the CDU/CSU alliance, particularly with the CSU leadership in Bavaria.

In June 2013, during a joint press conference with United States President Barack Obama, Merkel referred to the internet as "Neuland" (uncharted territory), a remark that generated widespread amusement and mockery on social media and in the German press, given that the internet had been in widespread use for nearly two decades at that point.

Fourth Term and Departure (2017–2021)

In the 2017 federal election, the CDU/CSU remained the largest party in the Bundestag but with a reduced vote share of 32.9 percent, its lowest result since 1949. The AfD entered the Bundestag for the first time, winning 12.6 percent of the vote and becoming the third-largest party. Coalition negotiations proved protracted; talks with the FDP and the Greens collapsed, and Merkel ultimately formed a third grand coalition with the SPD, which itself had initially vowed to go into opposition.

In October 2018, following poor results for the CDU in state elections in Bavaria and Hesse, Merkel announced that she would not seek re-election as CDU leader at the party congress in December of that year, though she stated her intention to remain as chancellor until the end of the parliamentary term in 2021. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected as her successor as party leader. Merkel's decision marked the beginning of a gradual withdrawal from frontline politics.

Merkel's final years in office were marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck Germany and the world beginning in early 2020. Drawing on her scientific background, Merkel communicated the complexities of the pandemic to the German public with a directness that was credited with helping to maintain public trust during the crisis. She also played a role in the European response, supporting the creation of a joint EU recovery fund to address the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Merkel did not stand for re-election in the September 2021 federal election. The CDU/CSU, led by chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, finished second to the SPD, led by Olaf Scholz, who formed a coalition government with the Greens and FDP. Merkel left office on 8 December 2021, after 16 years as chancellor — the second-longest tenure in that office in the history of the Federal Republic, after Helmut Kohl's 16 years and one month.

Personal Life

Angela Merkel was married twice. Her first marriage, to the physicist Ulrich Merkel, took place in 1977 while both were students. The couple divorced in 1982, though Angela retained the surname Merkel. In 1998, she married Joachim Sauer, a professor of quantum chemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Sauer maintained a low public profile throughout Merkel's chancellorship, rarely appearing at official state functions and largely avoiding media attention. The couple has no children together.

Merkel is known for her private nature and reluctance to discuss her personal life publicly. She has spoken in general terms about her upbringing in East Germany and the influence of her parents, particularly her father's vocation as a pastor, on her values. She is a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), reflecting her Protestant upbringing.

Throughout her political career, Merkel was noted for her understated personal style, including her characteristic collarless blazers in various colours, which became something of an unofficial trademark. She listed cooking and hiking among her personal interests in rare interviews about her life outside politics.

Recognition

Angela Merkel received numerous awards and honours during and after her time in office. She was named the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine for 14 consecutive years, a distinction that underscored her prominence on the global stage. The Economist described Germany under her leadership as "Europe's reluctant hegemon," capturing both her influence and her characteristic caution in exercising it.

Merkel was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the United States, among other international honours. She received the Charlemagne Prize (Karlspreis), awarded annually to individuals who have contributed to European unity.

Her relationship with subsequent CDU leadership has remained a subject of public discussion in Germany. At the February 2026 CDU party congress, Chancellor Friedrich Merz was re-elected as party leader with 91.17 percent of the vote. Reports noted that Merkel was absent from the proceedings, and Merz's address to the congress included pointed references to the party's direction, reflecting ongoing tensions within the CDU about her political legacy. Some commentators have drawn comparisons between Merz's governing style and that of his predecessor, with the headline "'Merz is the new Merkel'" appearing in coverage of the CDU congress.

Legacy

Angela Merkel's 16-year chancellorship left a substantial imprint on German and European politics. She led Germany through a succession of crises — the global financial crisis, the eurozone debt crisis, the migrant crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic — each of which tested and reshaped the European project. Her insistence on fiscal discipline during the eurozone crisis defined the terms of European economic debate for a generation, while her 2015 decision to admit refugees reshaped the politics of immigration across the continent.

In foreign policy, Merkel's legacy is subject to ongoing reassessment, particularly regarding her approach to Russia. Her government's support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which aimed to increase the supply of Russian natural gas directly to Germany, became a focal point of criticism after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Critics have argued that Merkel's policy of engagement with Russia — grounded in the German tradition of "Wandel durch Handel" (change through trade) — underestimated the threat posed by the Kremlin and left Europe strategically vulnerable. Her 2008 decision to block NATO membership pathways for Ukraine and Georgia has been revisited in this context.

Within the CDU, Merkel's legacy remains contested. Her pragmatic centrism — moving the party towards the political centre on issues such as nuclear energy, same-sex marriage, and immigration — broadened the CDU's electoral appeal but also contributed to the rise of the AfD on the party's right flank. The ongoing debate within the CDU about its ideological direction, visible at the party's 2026 congress, reflects the enduring influence and controversy of the Merkel era.

As the first woman to serve as Chancellor of Germany, and as a scientist who entered politics only after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Merkel's biography is without direct precedent in German political history. Her trajectory from a research chemist in East Germany to the leader of Europe's largest economy for 16 years remains a defining narrative of the post-reunification era.