Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Merkel (born Angela Dorothea Kasner on 17 July 1954 in Hamburg) is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 22 November 2005 to 8 December 2021.

She was born in Hamburg, at the time part of West Germany, and grew up in the former German Democratic Republic, where she lived until the reuniting of Germany in 1990. Merkel is now married to Joachim Sauer, a professor of chemistry. From 2000 to 2018, she was the chairperson (was in charge of) the German conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU).

Merkel became Germany's first female chancellor on 22 November 2005 in a coalition of the two biggest German political parties, the CDU/CSU and SPD. After the next election in 2009, she formed a coalition with the German liberal party FDP. After the 2013 and 2017 Federal Elections, she again emerged as chancellor of a coalition government.

Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother was a school teacher. Before becoming a politician, she worked as a researcher in Physical Chemistry. In December 2015, she was named as Time magazine's Person of the Year. 

In October 2018, Merkel announced her permanent retirement from politics, as she said she would not seek reelection as leader of the CDU at the party convention in December 2018 and as Chancellor in 2021. After this, another female politician, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, replaced her as CDU leader.

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Category:1954 births
Category:Living people
Category:Chancellors of Germany
Category:East German people
Category:German chemists
Category:German Lutherans
Category:Members of the German Bundestag
Category:Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Category:Politicians from Hamburg
Category:Politicians of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany
Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Category:Time People of the Year
Category:Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth ministers of Germany
Category:Environment ministers of Germany
Category:Leaders of the Opposition (Germany)