Angela Merkel: German Chancellor (2005–2021), CDU Leader and Political Career

Angela Dorothea Merkel (born Angela Dorothea Kasner on 17 July 1954 in Hamburg) is a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 22 November 2005 until 8 December 2021.

Merkel was born in Hamburg, which at the time belonged to West Germany. She spent her childhood and early adult years in the German Democratic Republic and remained there until the reunification of Germany in 1990.

She is married to Joachim Sauer, who works as a professor of chemistry. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother taught at school.

From 2000 until 2018 Merkel led the conservative party, acting as the chairperson of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany. She first became Germany’s first female chancellor on 22 November 2005, heading a governing coalition formed by the CDU/CSU together with the SPD.

After the 2009 election she led a coalition with the liberal FDP, and following the 2013 and 2017 federal elections she continued as chancellor in subsequent coalition governments. Before entering politics she worked as a researcher in Physical Chemistry. In December 2015 she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

In October 2018 Merkel announced her permanent retirement from frontline politics, saying she would not stand again for the party leadership at the December 2018 convention and would leave the chancellorship in 2021.

Following her decision, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer succeeded her as leader of the CDU.