Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Merkel (born 1954) is a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she led the party from 2000 to 2018 and became Germany’s first female chancellor. Raised in East Germany, Merkel trained as a physicist and earned a doctorate before entering politics after German reunification. She held federal cabinet posts in the 1990s, including Minister for Women and Youth and Minister for the Environment. Merkel has also written and co-written political texts and has been the subject of numerous books about her leadership and policies.