As the most powerful woman in the world, Chancellor Angela Merkel has proven that being a woman has power, and even more so, being a woman who can shed her softer side and lead with strength and power. She believes that gender does not stop the appetite for success, and she could not have been more right. In a world where the debate on feminism is pushing women to greater extremes, it is refreshing to see that a woman has achieved more through her actions than through mere words.
Angela Merkel’s Biography
The young Angela was born on July 17, 1954, as Angelina Dorothy Merkel in a rectory in Hamburg West Germany, and moved with her family to East Germany when her father was called to the rectory in Perleberg. As a child, she was given the nickname “Kasi”, which is derived from her family name, and she also carries the nickname “Muti”. Her father, Horst Kasner, was a clergyman and Protestant pastor, a native of Berlin, while her mother, Herlind, was an English and Latin teacher. Horst Kasner died in 2011.
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Angela was not an only child, she has two younger siblings: Marcus Kasner, physicist, and Irene Kasner, occupational therapist. Merkel is of Polish descent, but there was controversy about it until it was clarified in 2013.
Many people wondered whether the political spirit and strength of Merkel came from her father on her father’s side, Ludwik Kazmierczak, who was a policeman and one of the few who was known as Kazmierczak at the beginning of the 20th century but later changed his name to Kasner. Ironically, Merkel’s maternal grandparents, Willi Jentzsch and Gertrud Alma were also politicians.
Merkel’s family was originally Catholic, but they converted to Lutheranism. She grew up in Templin, in the countryside north of East Berlin, and attended Karl Marx University in Leipzig, where she studied physics for five years. She received her doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986 and worked simultaneously as a research scientist until 1989.
Angela Merkel is 1.5 m tall, weighs 60 kg, has blue eyes and light brown hair. She loves watching football, cooking, and baking, but the most powerful woman in the world fears dogs. As a political icon, many have wondered how much she earns and how much she is worth, here is your answer. Angela Merkel is worth 11.5 million euros and earns 0.24 million euros annually.
Husband and Family Life
Angela Merkel was married twice, the first time at the age of 23 to Ulrich Merkel, who was a physics student in 1977. However, their union ended in 1982 in a divorce without children. She met her second husband, Joachim Sauer, a quantum chemist and professor, in 1981. They married privately on December 30, 1998. Merkel has no biological children of her own, but her husband Sauer has two sons from his first marriage since it was not his first attempt at marriage either.
Angela Merkel Political Career
Merkel is currently Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and has been chairwoman of the center-right Christain Democratic Union since 2000. She is a member of the European Union and one of its leading voices, as such, she is considered the leader of the free world.
Merkel began her political career during her studies at university when she joined some students who initiated and founded their own clubs or the reconstruction of the Moritz Bastion. After her many first political lectures at school, Merkel later joined the Free German Youth, which was supported by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
Merkel’s path into world politics began completely in 1989 after the revolution when she was chosen as a spokeswoman for the first democratically elected government of the GDR in 1990 under Lothar de Maiziere. She was subsequently elected to the Bundestag for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after German unification in the same year. Since then she has remained in this office and was confirmed in the office.
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Her portfolio was expanded in 1991 when she was appointed Federal Minister for Women and Youth in the government of Helmut Josef Kohl. This was mainly due to the fact that, as Chancellor, Kohl trusted in her abilities. She was one of the youngest female cabinet ministers during Lothar’s term of office and was often referred to as Lothar’s girl. After proving herself in government, Merkel was appointed Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety in 1994. In the meantime, her power and influence had increased, so that her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), ran for the Bundestag elections in 1998, but lost, and she was elected secretary-general of the party. In 1999 a donations scandal broke out, which led to controversy in the CDU leadership so that Merkel decided to become a party leader and was finally the first woman to reach the top of the party.
In the 2005 elections, Merkel became the first female chancellor at the head of a grand coalition, where she challenged and won Chancellor Gerhard Schroder of the SPD. In 2009 she formed a coalition government of CDU and Free Democratic Party and a second grand coalition with the Social Democratic Party. In 2007 the political icon of the people became President of the European Council and was a great help in the negotiations on the Lisbon Treaty and the Berlin Declaration. Just when it looked like she had had enough, Angela Merkel was re-elected on 14 March 2018 to continue her leadership of the CDU party.
During all this time, Merkel has taken a strong interest in economic growth and development and has overcome several financial crises involving both the European Union and the international level. She is considered a solid decision-maker and a great advisor on financial issues. As a current high-ranking G7 leader, she earned an additional asset when she became the longest-serving female leader and head of government in the European Union on 26 March 2014.
Among her many accomplishments, Angela Merkel advocated Germany’s withdrawal from nuclear power and created the relationship between the Germans and Americans who advocated a US invasion of Iraq. She accused the Iranian chancellor of anti-Americanism and frowned on support for Turkey’s accession to the European Union, advocating a favored partnership instead.
For all her great works, the political icon received national and foreign honors, titles, awards, and recognitions.
