The real iron woman of Europe | Angela Merkel

 

Angela Merkel: The Woman Who Shaped Germany and Europe

Angela Merkel, the former chancellor of Germany, is widely regarded as one of the most influential and respected leaders of the 21st century. She led Germany for 16 years, from 2005 to 2021, and was the first woman to hold that office and the second longest-serving chancellor in German history. She also played a key role in shaping the European Union and its response to various crises, such as the eurozone debt crisis, the migration crisis, the Brexit referendum, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner on July 17, 1954, in Hamburg, West Germany. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother was a teacher of Latin and English. When she was a few weeks old, her family moved to East Germany (German Democratic Republic), where her father accepted a pastorate in Quitzow, Brandenburg. In 1957, they moved again to Templin, where Merkel finished high school in 1973.

Merkel excelled in mathematics and science and decided to study physics at Karl Marx University (now the University of Leipzig) in 1973. There she met her first husband, fellow physics student Ulrich Merkel, whom she married in 1977. They divorced in 1982, but she kept his last name. She earned her diploma in 1978 and then worked as a member of the academic faculty at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin. She obtained her doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986.

As a child growing up in the communist regime, Merkel participated in the state’s youth organizations, such as the Young Pioneers and the Free German Youth. However, she was not an active member of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the ruling party of East Germany. She later claimed that she was only responsible for cultural affairs (e.g., procuring theatre tickets) at her workplace and not for agitation and propaganda, as some of her former colleagues alleged.

Merkel’s political career began after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. She joined Democratic Beginning, a new political movement that emerged from the peaceful revolution against the SED. In 1990, she became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a conservative party that dominated West German politics. She also became a member of parliament for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern after winning a seat in the first free elections in East Germany.

Merkel quickly rose through the ranks of the CDU and gained the trust of Helmut Kohl, who became chancellor of reunified Germany in 1990. She served as minister for women and youth (1991–1994) and minister for environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety (1994–1998) under Kohl’s government. She also became the leader of the CDU in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 1993.

In 1998, Kohl’s government lost power to Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democratic Party (SPD). Merkel became the general secretary of the CDU and helped rebuild the party after a scandal involving illegal donations to Kohl’s campaign. In 2000, she succeeded Wolfgang Schäuble as the leader of the CDU. In 2002, she also became the leader of the opposition and the leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.

In 2005, Merkel challenged Schröder for chancellorship after his government lost confidence vote. She narrowly won the election and formed a grand coalition with Schröder’s SPD. She became Germany’s first female chancellor and also its youngest one at age 51. She was reelected three more times: in 2009 with a coalition with

the Free Democratic Party (FDP), in 2013 with another grand coalition with SPD, and in 2017 with yet another grand coalition with SPD.

As chancellor, Merkel pursued a pragmatic and consensus-oriented approach to domestic and foreign policy. She advocated for social market economy, fiscal discipline, renewable energy transition, digital transformation, immigration integration, gender equality, and human rights. She also faced several challenges and crises during her tenure, such as:

• The eurozone debt crisis: Merkel supported bailouts for Greece and other indebted countries but also demanded austerity measures and structural reforms from them. She also pushed for greater fiscal integration and banking union within the EU.

• The migration crisis: Merkel