Merkel, Angela, << MEHR kuhl, AHN geh lah >> (1954-…), served as chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She was the first woman to hold the post. She was also the first person from the former East Germany to serve as chancellor since Germany’s unification in 1990. As chancellor, Merkel helped lead Germany, and the European Union, through a number of major crises.
Angela Dorothea Kasner was born on July 17, 1954, in Hamburg, West Germany. Her family moved to Templin, a town in East Germany, that same year, when her father, a Lutheran minister, became pastor of a church there. She earned a degree in physics in 1978 and a doctorate in 1986 from the University of Leipzig. In 1977, she married Ulrich Merkel. The couple divorced in 1982. She later remarried but kept the name Merkel.
In 1990, Merkel joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), one of the two largest political parties in Germany. The other is the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Later that year, East Germany and West Germany unified, and Merkel was elected to her first term in Germany’s national parliament. From 1991 to 1998, she held posts in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s cabinet and served as deputy chair of the CDU. She was the CDU general secretary from 1998 to 2000. In 2000, she became the CDU chair. She served in the position until 2018.
Elections in 2005 gave the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), more seats in Germany’s parliament than any other party, but not a majority of the seats. The CDU/CSU joined with the SPD to form a government, and Merkel became chancellor. For many years, Merkel’s CDU maintained control and formed a series of coalition governments. As chancellor, Merkel won praise for her steady leadership and approachable image. She led the country through economic turmoil, a migrant crisis stemming from war in the Middle East, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, Merkel announced that she would step down as chancellor after a successor was named following the 2021 elections. Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, who had served as finance minister in Merkel’s coalition government, succeeded Merkel in December 2021.
