Germany’s First Female Chancellor:
“Chancellor of the Free World”

BIOGRAPHY and TIMELINE

Angela Merkel (pron. AHN-gay-luh MEHRK-ell), Germany’s first female chancellor, was born Angela Dorothea Kasner in Hamburg on 17 July 1954. That same year her father Horst Kasner, a Lutheran pastor, accepted a pastorship at a church in the village of Quitzow in East Germany. Her mother Herlind (nee Jentzsch) was a teacher of Latin and English. In 1957, four years before the Berlin Wall was erected, the family moved to Templin, about 50 miles north of Berlin. Angela Merkel, along with her brother Marcus and her sister Irene (both born in East Germany), thus grew up in the socialist German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik).

Angela Merkel served as Germany’s chancellor for 16 years, from 2005 until 2021. Before her long, record-breaking term in office was over, she had become known for her calm, patient leadership style and was considered “the leader of the free world” for a time. She dealt with many crises – from Syrian refugees and the Covid-19 pandemic – showing how a female could be a strong leader, facing off with Vladimir Putin more than once. Yes, she made some mistakes. The rightwing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party arose and entered the Bundestag during her time in office. She probably was not forceful enough in combating those ugly forces in Germany. But when she left office in 2021, she was a generally popular politician, seen as down-to-earth and intelligent. She also chose the time for her exit and a new life away from the public eye. In November 2024 her memoir FREIHEIT/FREEDOM (Amazon.com affiliate link) went on sale worldwide in English, German and many other languages.

Merkel attended school in Templin (Brandenburg) and studied physics at the University of Leipzig (then Karl-Marx-Universität), graduating in 1978. She later earned her doctorate in quantum chemistry and pursued research in that field. She also received an award for outstanding proficiency in Russian, a required language in the East German education system.

In 1977 Angela Kasner married Ulrich Merkel, a physics student she had met during an exchange trip to Moscow and Leningrad, but they divorced in 1982. Her second and current husband is chemistry professor Joachim Sauer. They have no children, but Sauer has two grown sons from a previous marriage.

The Merkel-Putin Language Connection Although she was born in western Germany, Angela Merkel grew up and attended school in the German Democratic Republic, where she excelled in her mandatory Russian language studies. She later traveled in Russia as an exchange student. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer stationed in Dresden, where one of his daughters was born. Fluent in German, Putin’s cover was that of a translator. Only two years older than Merkel, Putin would also later become the leader of his country. The two never met until 2002 in Moscow, when Merkel was the CDU party leader. After she became German chancellor in 2005, Merkel and Putin could converse in each other’s language. In diplomatic meetings they both have been known to correct their official interpreters. See the photo below of the two leaders meeting in Russia in 2017.

After the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Merkel got involved in politics, getting elected to the East German caretaker government. Following reunification in 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag (German parliament). Later, Chancellor Helmut Kohl took Merkel under his wing and she rose rapidly in the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party. After the CDU/CSU candidate (Edmund Stoiber of Bavaria) failed to defeat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD, Social Democrats) in the 2002 election, Merkel became the leader of the opposition in the Bundestag.

In the September 2005 national election, the CDU/CSU won by a slight margin, but neither the SPD (Schröder) nor the CDU (Merkel) had a majority. In the end, after protracted negotiations, Merkel became chancellor under a “Grand Coalition” (CDU-SPD) deal. She was sworn into office on 22 November 2005, the first female ever to hold that office. She ultimately served as the chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. During her 16 years as chancellor, Merkel was often referred to as the de facto leader of the European Union and the most powerful woman in the world.

Angela Merkel was re-elected in 2009, 2013, and 2017, when she began serving her fourth term as German chancellor. The growing European refugee problem in 2015, with Syrian and other Muslim refugees flooding into Europe, was one of Merkel’s greatest challenges since she first came into office. Nevertheless, she and her CDU/CSU party were once again elected to hold Germany’s highest office in 2017, although with a smaller margin than in previous elections.

In 2014 Merkel had become the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the EU. In October 2018, Angela Merkel announced that she would stand down as leader of the CDU at the party convention, and would not seek a fifth term as chancellor in the 2021 federal election.

BIOGRAPHY: The New York Times bestseller The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton (Kindle, hardcover, paperback, audio) – An excellent biography of Merkel by the Hungarian-born wife of the late diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the former US ambassador to Germany. – We highly recommend this book! Watch for our review of this biography coming soon. This title is available from Amazon.com and other online and local bookstores. Also see a link to her 2024 memoirs below.

The election results of 26 September 2021 proved inconclusive. Although the SPD party won the most votes, no single party had the required majority. This necessitated long negotiations among the various parties to form a coalition government (SPD, the Greens, and FDP). On 23 November 2021 a new so-called “traffic light coalition” (red, green, yellow, the colors of the three parties involved) was announced, with Olaf Scholz (SPD) nominated to succeed Merkel. Merkel continued to serve as chancellor in a caretaker capacity until 8 December 2021, when Scholz was officially sworn in.

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Angela Merkel Timeline

1954: Angela Kasner is born in Hamburg on 17 July. That same year her family moves to East Germany.

1973: Graduates from secondary school in Templin with her Abitur (diploma). She shines in mathematics and the required subject of Russian, in which she becomes a fluent speaker.

1973-1978: Quantum physics studies in Leipzig; graduates with a Diplomphysikerin physics degree.

1977: Marries fellow physics student Ulrich Merkel. They will divorce in 1982, but she keeps the Merkel surname for professional reasons.

1978-1990: Member of the academic staff at the Zentralinstitut für physikalische Chemie at the Akademie der Wissenschaften (Academy of Sciences) in East Berlin (Berlin-Adlershof).

1984: Meets Joachim Sauer during an exchange student visit in Russia. They will marry in 1998.

1986: Receives her doctorate degree in quantum chemistry, travels to West Germany for several days, a rare privilege for a citizen of East Germany. She will work in her field as a research scientist until 1989.

1989: 9 November | The Berlin Wall opens. It will soon disappear as East and West Germany move towards reunification.
December | A month after the fall of the Wall, Merkel becomes a member of the Demokratischer Aufbruch (Democratic Awakening) party, which will later merge with the CDU.

1990: February | Joins the western CDU (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) party.
18 March | Deputy government spokeswoman of the East German de Maizière government.
2 December | Elected a CDU member of parliament (Mitglied des Deutschen Bundestages) in now unified Germany.

1991-1994: Federal Minister for Women and Youth (Bundesministerin für Frauen und Jugend)

1993-2000: Chairwoman of the CDU Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

1994-1998: Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerin für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit)

1998: On 30 December Angela Merkel marries her longtime companion Joachim Sauer. As she had done when she divorced Ulrich Merkel in 1982, she keeps the Merkel surname.

1998-2000: Deputy Secretary of the CDU (Generalsekretärin der CDU)

2000-2018: Chairwoman of the CDU (Vorsitzende der CDU)

2005-2018: Chairwoman of the CDU/CSU faction in parliament (Vorsitzende der CDU/CSU-Fraktion im Bundestag)

2005: Merkel is sworn in as Federal Chancellor (Bundeskanzlerin) on 22 November. The CDU forms a coalition government with the SPD (Social Democrats).

2009: Re-elected in the 27 September election. The CDU obtains the largest share of the votes and forms a coalition government with the CSU and the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

2009: 3 November | Following her re-election as chancellor in September and just days before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (9 Nov.), Merkel makes a historic speech to both houses of the US Congress. She is only the second German chancellor to address Congress since Konrad Adenauer in 1957 (to separate sessions), and only the eighth foreign dignitary ever to do so. Merkel called on the US to join international efforts against global warming. Before her speech on Capitol Hill, Merkel met with President Barack Obama at the White House. The US president thanked Merkel for her country’s military support in Afghanistan.

• VIDEO: C-SPAN coverage of speech (YouTube).
• MORE: 2009 Speech – Full Text of Merkel’s address to the US Congress – in German and English.

2010: June | Merkel and German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble announce the key measures of the largest budget cuts in Germany’s history in an effort to stem a drop in the country’s GDP, and adjust for the EU’s stability package that deals with economic problems in some parts of the euro zone.

2011: Following the Fukushima atomic power plant disaster in Japan in the spring, the German government resolves to move away from nuclear power by shutting down all atomic power plants by 2022, and expanding the use of renewable energy. The policy draws criticism from all sides because in fall 2010 the chancellor had supported an extension of the time that German nuclear power plants could operate.
June 7 | During a state visit to the United States Angela Merkel receives the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. It is America’s highest civilian honor.

2012: March | 25 of the 27 EU nations sign off on a new European fiscal package put forth by Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
May | During the G-8 summit at Camp David, Merkel re-emphasizes the importance of budget cuts. Other state heads, including President Obama, push for more investment and the need to create economic growth.

2013: On 17 December the German Bundestag elects Angela Merkel to her third term as German chancellor by a vote of 462 to 150, with nine abstentions. Following the September parliamentary election, the CDU emerges as the strongest party, and forms a coalition government with the SPD.

2014: 6 January | Merkel fractures a bone in her pelvis in a cross-country skiing accident in Switzerland.
27 February | Angela Merkel is invited to speak before both houses of the British parliament. The only other Germans to receive that honor before her were Willy Brandt, Richard von Weizsäcker, and Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger, born in Bavaria in 1927).

2015: December | “Chancellor of the Free World” – Time magazine names Angela Merkel its Person of the Year, citing her resolve in leading Europe through the Greek debt crisis, and her encouragement of other countries to open their borders to migrants and refugees. Time editor Nancy Gibbs wrote: “Leaders are tested only when people don’t want to follow. For asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply, Angela Merkel is Time’s Person of the Year.”

2017: October | Angela Merkel is re-elected to her fourth term as chancellor, although the refugee crisis in Europe and Germany plays a role in reducing her margin of victory to her lowest ever. She faces problems in forming a governing coalition after the SPD decides it wants to play an opposition role rather than partner with the CDU/CSU, as it had done since 2013. Although a “grand coalition” (CDU/CSU + SPD) is finally formed, it is an uneasy alliance. Merkel herself, however, remains a popular leader.

2018: October | Angela Merkel announces that she will stand down as leader of the CDU, and will not seek a fifth term as chancellor in the 2021 federal election.

2020: March | The Covid-19 pandemic begins to have an increasing impact on Germany and the world.

2021: 26 September | Although the CDU loses its majority, and the SPD party wins the most votes, no single party has the required majority.
23 November | A new so-called “traffic light coalition” is announced, with Olaf Scholz (SPD) nominated to succeed Merkel. She continues to serve as chancellor in a caretaker capacity.

2021: 8 December | Olaf Scholz becomes German chancellor following his swearing-in ceremony.

Next | Featured Bios

Related Pages
AT THE GERMAN WAY

• Full Text of Merkel’s address to the US Congress (Nov. 3, 2009) – in English and German. Merkel addressed a joint session of US Congress, as the second German chancellor and the 8th foreign dignitary to do so. > 2009 Speech
• Konrad Adenauer – Modern Germany’s very first chancellor
• Notable Germans, Austrians and Swiss
• Famous Graves – The graves and cemeteries of the famous

BOOK: Angela Merkel’s 2024 memoirs – Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021 – About Merkel’s life in East Germany and her career in politics and as chancellor for 16 years (in English, German, Spanish and other language editions, from Amazon.com). The German Way & More earns an affiliate commission at no extra cost to the purchaser.

ON THE WEB

• What Is Driving Angela Merkel? – Why has Angela Merkel staked her legacy on the refugees? From SPIEGEL Online (international edition)
• Angela Merkel (Wikipedia, in English)
• Angela Merkel (Wikipedia, auf Deutsch)
• Der Bundeskanzler – Olaf Scholz is the current German chancellor
• Biographie: Angela Merkel (LEMO/HDG, in German)

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