Angela Merkel (17 July 1954-) was Chancellor of Germany from 22 November 2005 to 8 December 2021, succeeding Gerhard Schroeder and preceding Olaf Scholz. Merkel also served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union from 10 April 2000 to 7 December 2018, succeeding Wolfgang Schauble and preceding Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Biography[]
Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany on 17 July 1954, and she was raised in Perleberg, Brandenburg, East Germany after her father, a Lutheran minister, received a pastorate in Perleberg. She worked as a research scientist from 1986 to 1989 before entering politics as deputy spokesperson for Lothar de Maiziere, the head of East Germany's first democratically-elected government. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl appointed her Minister for Women and Youth in 1991. After the CDU lost the 1998 federal election, Merkel was elected General Secretary of the CDU and became the party's first female leader and first female Leader of the Opposition in 2000. Following the 2005 election, Merkel formed a grand coalition of the CDU, CSU, and SPD, making her the first female Chancellor of Germany. After the 2009 general election, the CDU formed a coalition with the FDP, but the FDP lost all of its seats in 2013, leading to Merkel again forming a coalition with the SPD. Merkel, a centrist, supported international cooperation in the form of both the European Union and NATO, and she oversaw Germany and Europe's response to the Great Recession of 2007-2008, supported renewable energy and other environmentalist policies, abolished conscription, and also oversaw her country's response to the migrant crisis and COVID-19 during the 2010s. In October 2018, Merkel announced that she would stand down as CDU Leader at the party convention and would not seek a fifth term as Chancellor in 2021.