One of the most notable people in our last government was Angela Merkel. She was the chancellor of Germany for almost 16 years in a row and the first woman in that position. She was the youngest that got the position at 51 years old and was the first from the east side of Germany. During her career, she visited many countries. Also, she was one of the most powerful women in the world. The US magazine “Forbes” said that she was the most powerful woman in the world from around 2006 to 2020. Only in 2010 was Michelle Obama more powerful than her according to the magazine.
Her political career started on December 2nd, 1990, when she joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party and got into the government for the first time. After that, she was successfully elected 7 times in a row in her own region (Vorpommern) as the first choice. From 1991 to 1994, in the government, Angela Merkel was responsible for women and youth, and from 1994 to 1998, she was there for the environment and natural reserves. From November 22, 2005 to December 8, 2021, as chancellor, she presided over the German parliament. Angela Merkel didn’t run for the 20th German parliament, going into retirement after the end of the 19th.
Before she went into the government, Merkel studied physics at the Karl-Marx-Universität (today: Universität Leipzig) in 1973. For her studies, she received the “Ehrendoktorwürde” (a medal) from the University Leipzig on June 3rd, 2008. The medal was for her studies of physics, which helped the fields of environmental protection, democracy and human rights.
Angela Merkel also received some state medals, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama on June 7th, 2011 when she was visiting him. She got more than just this one, but it would take too long to list all of them. Some are from Germany, Italy, Norway, Austria, Belgium and many more countries. Additionally, she received different medals from non-state organizations for various reasons.
There exists more than one book about her as a person. Some of the authors are Robin Alexander, Ralph Bollmann and Stefan Kornelius. The topics of these books are about her life, her political career and the end of that. There are also documentaries about her life and the decisions she made in her political career and during her time as the leader of the German government.
- Fiona Schmitz - Germany