Angela Merkel: The Former Chancellor of Germany

Introduction

Angela Merkel served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold this office and the first East German to do so. Her tenure was marked by a number of significant events, including the global financial crisis, the eurozone crisis, and the refugee crisis. Merkel is widely regarded as one of the most successful politicians in German history, and she left office with high approval ratings.

Early Life and Education

Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany, on July 17, 1954. Her father was a Lutheran pastor, and her mother was a teacher. Merkel grew up in a small town in East Germany, where she attended school and studied physics at the University of Leipzig. After graduating, she worked as a research scientist at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR.

Political Career

Merkel began her political career in 1989, when she joined the Democratic Awakening, a political party that was formed in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall. She was elected to the Volkskammer, the parliament of East Germany, in 1990. After the reunification of Germany, Merkel joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and she was elected to the Bundestag, the German parliament, in 1991.

Merkel served in a number of ministerial positions in the government of Helmut Kohl. In 2005, she was elected Chancellor of Germany. She was reelected in 2009, 2013, and 2017.