Here’s a look at the life of the first female chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.
Personal:
Birth date: July 17, 1954
Birth place: Hamburg, Germany
Birth name: Angela Dorothea Kasner
Father: Horst Kasner, a Lutheran minister
Mother: Herlind Kasner, an English teacher
Marriages: Joachim Sauer (1998-present); Ulrich Merkel (1977-1982, divorced)
Education: University of Leipzig, B.S., 1978; German Academy of Sciences, Ph.D, 1986
Religion: Lutheran
Other Facts:
Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl sometimes referred to her as “the girl.”
She is a trained physicist.
Timeline:
1978-1990 – Research associate at Zentralinstitut fur physikalische Chemie in Berlin.
1990 – Becomes Press Officer for Demokratischer Aufbruch (DA or Democratic Awakening).
December 1990 – Is elected to the German Bundestag.
1991 – Is named Minister of Women and Young People by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and becomes Deputy Chairperson of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
1994 – Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
1998 – General Secretary of the CDU.
April 10, 2000 – Becomes the first female chairperson of the CDU.
October 10, 2005 – Strikes a deal with Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats that will make her the first female Chancellor of Germany.
November 22, 2005 – Is sworn in as the first female chancellor of Germany.
January 13 and 16, 2006 – Meets President George W. Bush at the White House and President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
April 30, 2008 – Receives the Charlemagne Prize, the “Citizens’ Prize for Services to European Unity.”
June 26, 2009 – Makes first visit to the United States under President Barack Obama’s administration.
September 27, 2009 – Is re-elected chancellor of Germany.
February 15, 2011 – Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.
June 17, 2011 – Meets with French President Nicholas Sarkozy to discuss a potential Greek bailout plan.
December 5, 2011 – Meets with Sarkozy to announce their proposed plan to impose fiscal discipline on members of the European Union.
September 22, 2013 – Merkel is re-elected chancellor of Germany.
October 25, 2013 – In the wake of reports that the US National Security Agency eavesdropped on her cell phone, an angry Merkel says, “true change is necessary,” and “spying among friends is never acceptable.”
December 17, 2013 – Is sworn in for a third term as chancellor of Germany.
June 12, 2015 – Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office has dropped a probe into allegations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden that the National Security Agency had bugged the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The office stated there was insufficient evidence to launch a successful prosecution.
December 9, 2015 – Is named Person of the Year by Time magazine.
March 17, 2017 – Makes first visit to the United States under President Donald Trump’s administration.
September 24, 2017 – Merkel wins a fourth term as German Chancellor, but her party’s lead in parliament is cut to 33.5% and the country faces a surge in support for the far right. The hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) becomes the third-largest group in the national parliament.