A physical chemist by professional background, Merkel entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989 and briefly served as the deputy spokesperson for Lothar de Maizière's democratically elected East German government prior to the Reunification of Germany. Following the reunification in 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag, where she has represented the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since. She served as Federal Minister for Women and Youth 1991–1994 and as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety 1994–1998 in Helmut Kohl's fourth and fifth cabinet. She was Secretary General of the CDU 1998–2000, and was elected chairperson in 2000. From 2002 to 2005, she was also chair of the CDU/CSU parliamentary coalition.
After her election as Chancellor following the 2005 federal election, she led a grand coalition consisting of her own CDU party, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), until 2009. In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the votes, and formed a coalition government with the CSU and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).
In 2007, Merkel was also President of the European Council and chaired the G8. She played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. In domestic policy, health care reform and problems concerning future energy development have thus far been major issues of her tenure.
Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany. In 2007, she became the second woman to chair the G8, after Margaret Thatcher. In November 2011 she became the longest-serving leader of a G8 country. Forbes has named her the fourth most powerful person in the world as of 2011.
Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner in Hamburg, West Germany, the daughter of Horst Kasner (1926–2011)), a Lutheran pastor and a native of Berlin, and his wife, Herlind (born 1928 in Danzig, as Herlind Jentzsch), a teacher of English and Latin. Her mother was once a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Her grandparents on her mother's side, one of them being Masurian, lived in Elbing/Elbląg in East Prussia. Merkel stated that she is one quarter ethnically Polish in an interview with Der Spiegel in 2000. She has a brother, Marcus (born 7 July 1957), and a sister, Irene (born 19 August 1964).
Merkel's father studied theology in Heidelberg and, afterwards, in Hamburg. In 1954 her father received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow (near Perleberg in Brandenburg), which then was in East Germany, and the family moved to Templin. Thus Merkel grew up in the countryside 80 km (50 mi) north of Berlin. Gerd Langguth, a former senior member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, states in his book that the family's ability to travel freely from East to West Germany during the following years, as well as their possession of two automobiles, leads to the conclusion that Merkel's father had a "sympathetic" relationship with the communist regime, since such freedom and perquisites for a Christian pastor and his family would have been otherwise impossible in East Germany.
At the first post-reunification general election in December 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag from the constituency Stralsund – Nordvorpommern – Rügen, which is coextensive with the district of Vorpommern-Rügen. This has remained her electoral district until today. Her party merged with the west German CDU and she became Minister for Women and Youth in Helmut Kohl's 3rd cabinet. In 1994, she was made Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety, which gave her greater political visibility and a platform on which to build her political career. As one of Kohl's protégées and his youngest cabinet minister, she was referred to by Kohl as "mein Mädchen" ("my girl").
Merkel (right) as deputy government spokesperson together with Lothar de Maizière, August 1990
When the Kohl government was defeated in the 1998 general election, Merkel was named Secretary-General of the CDU. In this position, Merkel oversaw a string of Christian Democrat election victories in six out of seven state elections in 1999 alone, breaking the SPD-Green coalition's hold on the Bundesrat, the legislative body representing the states. Following a party financing scandal, which compromised many leading figures of the CDU (most notably Kohl himself, who refused to reveal the donor of DM 2,000,000 claiming he had given his word of honour and the then party chairman Wolfgang Schäuble, Kohl's hand-picked successor, who wasn't cooperative either), Merkel criticized her former mentor, Kohl, and advocated a fresh start for the party without him. She was elected to replace Schäuble, becoming the first female chair of her party, on 10 April 2000. Her election surprised many observers, as her personality offered a contrast to the party she had been chosen to lead; Merkel is a Protestant, originating from predominantly Protestant northern Germany, while the CDU is a male-dominated, socially conservative party with strongholds in western and southern Germany, and the Bavarian sister party, the CSU, has deep Catholic roots.
In 1977, Angela Kasner married physics student Ulrich Merkel. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982.[49] Her second and current husband is quantum chemist and professor Joachim Sauer, who has largely remained out of the media spotlight. They first met in 1981,became partners later and married privately on 30 December 1998. She has no children, but Sauer has two adult sons from a previous marriage.
In 2006, Angela Merkel was awarded the Vision for Europe Award for her contribution toward greater European integration. In 2007, Merkel was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In March 2006, the Italian President of the Republic gave the German Chancellor the recognition of Dama di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.
She received the Karlspreis (Charlemagne Prize) for 2008 for distinguished services to European unity.
In January 2008, Merkel was awarded Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. She was also awarded the honorary doctorate from Leipzig University in June 2008, University of Technology in Wrocław (Poland) in September 2008 and Babeş-Bolyai University from Cluj-Napoca, Romania on 12 October 2010 for her historical contribution to the European unification and for her global role in renewing international cooperation. In March 2008 she received the B’nai B’rith Europe Award of Merit.
Merkel topped Forbes magazine's list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011.
New Statesman named Angela Merkel in "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures" 2010.
On June 16, 2010, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C. awarded Chancellor Merkel its Global Leadership Award (AICGS) in recognition of her outstanding dedication to strengthening German-American relations.
On September 21, 2010, the Leo Baeck Institute, a research institution in New York City devoted to the history of German-speaking Jewry, awarded Angela Merkel the Leo Baeck Medal. The medal was presented by former US Secretary of the Treasury and current Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin, W. Michael Blumenthal, who cited Merkel's support of Jewish cultural life and the integration of minorities in Germany.
On 15 February 2011, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama. The medal is presented to people who have made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.
On 31 May 2011, she received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for the year 2009 from the Indian government. She received the award for International understanding.
Merkel has been criticised for being personally present and involved at the M100 Media Award handover to Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. This happened at a time of fierce emotional debate in Germany over disparaging remarks about Muslim immigrants made by the former Deutsche Bundesbank executive Thilo Sarrazin. The Zentralrat der Muslime and the left party (Die Linke) as well as the German Green Party criticised the action by the centre-right chancellor. The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper wrote: "This will probably be the most explosive appointment of her chancellorship so far." Others have praised Merkel and called it a brave and bold move for the cause of freedom of speech.
In September 2010 due to a debate of integration, Merkel said to the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper that "Germans will see more mosques". In October 2010, following a speech by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Christian Wulff during the German reunification day, she stated that
Der, R.; A. Merkel, H.-J. Czerwon (1980). "On the influence of spatial correlations on the rate of chemical reactions in dense gases. I. Quantum statistical theory". Chemical Physics 53 (3): 427–435. Bibcode 1980CP.....53..427D. doi:10.1016/0301-0104(80)85131-7.
Der, R.; R. Haberlandt, A. Merkel (1980). "On the influence of spatial correlations on the rate of chemical reactions in dense systems. II. Numerical results". Chemical Physics 53 (3): 437–442. Bibcode 1980CP.....53..437D. doi:10.1016/0301-0104(80)85132-9.
Boeger, I.; A. Merkel, J. Lachmann, H.-J. Spangenberg, T. Turanyi (1982). "An Extended Kinetic Model and its Reduction by Sensitivity Analysis for the Methanol/Oxygen Gas-Phase Thermolysis". Acta Chim. Hung. 129 (6): 855–864.
Merkel, Angela; Ilka Böger, Hans Joachim Spangenberg, Lutz Zülicke (1982). "Berechnung von Hochdruck-Geschwindigkeitskonstanten für Zerfalls- und Rekombinationsreaktionen einfacher Kohlenwasserstoffmoleküle und -radikale (Calculation of High Pressure Velocity Constants for Reactions of Decay and Recombinations of simple Hydrocarbon Molecules and Radicals)". Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie 263 (3): 449–460.
Merkel, Angela; Lutz Zülicke (1985). "Berechnung von Geschwindigkeitskonstanten für den C-H-Bindungsbruch im Methylradikal (Calculation of Velocity Constants for the Break of the Carbon-Hydrogen-Bond in the Methyl Radical)". Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie 266 (2): 353–361.
Merkel, Angela; Lutz Zülicke (1987). "Nonempirical parameter estimate for the statistical adiabatic theory of unimolecular fragmentation carbon-hydrogen bond breaking in methyl". Molecular Physics 60 (6): 1379–1393. Bibcode 1987MolPh..60.1379M. doi:10.1080/00268978700100901.
Merkel, Angela; Zdenek Havlas, Rudolf Zahradník (1988). "Evaluation of the rate constant for the SN2 reaction fluoromethane + hydride: methane + fluoride in the gas phase". Journal of American Chemical Society 110 (25): 8355–8359. doi:10.1021/ja00233a012.
Mix, H.; J. Sauer, K.-P. Schröder, A. Merkel (1988). "Vibrational Properties of Surface Hydroxyls: Nonempirical Model Calculations Including Anharmonicities". Coll. Czechoslov. Chem. Commun. 53 (10): 2191–2202. doi:10.1135/cccc19882191.
Schneider, F.; A. Merkel (1989). "The lowest bound states of triplet (BH2)+". Chemical Physics Letters 161 (6): 527–531. Bibcode 1989CPL...161..527S. doi:10.1016/0009-2614(89)87033-2.
Merkel, Angela; Lutz Zülicke (1990). "Theoretical approach to reactions of polyatomic molecules". International Journal of Quantum Chemistry 36 (2): 191–208. doi:10.1002/qua.560380214.
Merkel, Angela (1998). "The role of science in sustainable development". Science 281 (5375): 336–337. Bibcode 1998Sci...281..336M. doi:10.1126/science.281.5375.336.
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