Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel
Chancellor of Germany
Incumbent
Assumed office  22 November 2005
President	Horst Köhler
Deputy	Franz Müntefering Frank-Walter Steinmeier Guido Westerwelle
Preceded by	Gerhard Schröder
Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
In office 17 November 1994 – 26 October 1998
Chancellor	Helmut Kohl
Preceded by	Klaus Töpfer
Succeeded by	Jürgen Trittin
Minister for Women and Youth
In office 18 January 1991 – 17 November 1994
Chancellor	Helmut Kohl
Preceded by	Ursula Lehr
Succeeded by	Claudia Nolte
Born	17 July 1954 (1954-07-17) (age 55) Hamburg, West Germany
Political party	Christian Democratic Union (1990–present)
Other political affiliations	Democratic Awakening (1989–1990)
Spouse(s)	Ulrich Merkel (1977–1982) Joachim Sauer (1998–present)
Alma mater	University of Leipzig
Profession	Physical chemist
Religion	Lutheranism
Signature

Angela Dorothea Merkel (help·info) (German pronunciation: [ˈaŋɡela] or [aŋˈɡeːla doʀoˈteːa ˈmɛʁkl̩]; nee Kasner, born 17 July 1954) is the current Chancellor of Germany. Merkel, elected to the German Parliament from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 10 April 2000, and Chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary party group from 2002 to 2005.

From 2005 to 2009 she led a Grand coalition with the Christian Social Union (CSU), its Bavarian sister party, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), formed after the 2005 federal election on 22 November 2005. In the elections of 27 September 2009, her party, the CDU, obtained the largest share of the votes, and she formed a coalition government with the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's Bavarian sister party, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP). Her government was sworn in on 28 October 2009.^[1]

In 2007, Merkel was also President of the European Council and chaired the G8. She played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. In domestic policy, health care reform and problems concerning future energy development have thus far been the major policies of her tenure.^{[citation needed]}

Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany. From 2006 to 2009, Forbes Magazine has named her the most powerful woman in the world.^[2] In 2007 she became the second woman to chair the G8, after Margaret Thatcher.^{[citation needed]}

Chancellor Merkel is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008 Merkel received the Charlemagne Prize "for her work to reform the European Union". The prize was presented by Nicolas Sarkozy.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Angela Merkel was born as Angela Dorothea Kasner in Hamburg on 17 July 1954, as the daughter of Horst Kasner (b. 6 August 1926 in Berlin-Pankow), a Lutheran pastor and his wife, Herlind (b. 8 July 1928 in Danzig, as Herlind Jentzsch), a teacher of English and Latin. Her mother is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Her grandparents on her mother's side lived in Elbing in East Prussia; one of them being Masurian.^[3] She has a brother, Marcus (born 7 July 1957), and a sister, Irene (b. 19 August 1964).^{[citation needed]}

Merkel's father studied Theology in Heidelberg (then West Germany) and, afterwards, in Hamburg. In 1954 her father received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow (near Perleberg in Brandenburg) which then was in the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR), or Communist East Germany, and the family moved to Templin. Thus Merkel grew up in the countryside 80 km (50 miles) north of Berlin. Gerd Langguth, a former senior member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, states in his book^[4] that the family's ability to travel freely from East to West Germany during the following years, as well as their possession of two automobiles, leads to the conclusion that Merkel's father had a "sympathetic" relationship with the communist regime, since such freedom and perquisites for a Christian pastor and his family would have been otherwise impossible in East Germany.

Like most pupils, Merkel was a member of the official, Socialist-led youth movement Free German Youth (FDJ). Later she became a member of the district board and secretary for "Agitprop" (Agitation and Propaganda) at the Academy of Sciences in that organisation.^[5] However, she did not take part in the secular coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe, which was common in East Germany, and was confirmed instead. Merkel herself described her FDJ youth movement years as "cultural work".^{[citation needed]}

Merkel was educated in Templin and at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. While a student, she participated in the reconstruction of the ruin of the Moritz Bastei, a project students initiated to create their own club and recreation facility on campus. Such an initiative was unprecedented in the GDR of that period, and initially resisted by the University of Leipzig. However, with backing of the local leadership of the SED party, the project was allowed to proceed.^[6] Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. She learned to speak Russian fluently, and earned a statewide prize for her proficiency.^{[citation needed]} After being awarded a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) for her thesis on quantum chemistry^[7] she worked as a researcher.

In 1989, Merkel got involved in the growing democracy movement after the fall of the Berlin Wall, joining the new party Democratic Awakening. Following the first (and only) democratic election of the East German state, she became the deputy spokesperson of the new pre-unification caretaker government under Lothar de Maizière.^[8]

Member of Bundestag and cabinet minister

At the first post-reunification general election in December 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag from a constituency which includes the districts of Nordvorpommern and Rügen, as well as the city of Stralsund. This has remained her electoral district until today. Her party merged with the west German CDU^[9] and she became Minister for Women and Youth in Helmut Kohl's 3rd cabinet. In 1994, she was made Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety, which gave her greater political visibility and a platform on which to build her political career. As one of Kohl's protégées and his youngest cabinet minister, she was referred to by Kohl as "das Mädchen" ("the girl").^{[citation needed]}

Leader of the Opposition

When the Kohl government was defeated in the 1998 general election, Merkel was named Secretary-General of the CDU. In this position, Merkel oversaw a string of Christian Democrat election victories in six out of seven state elections in 1999 alone, breaking the SPD-Green coalition's hold on the Bundesrat, the legislative body representing the states. Following a party financing scandal, which compromised many leading figures of the CDU (most notably Kohl himself, who refused to reveal the donor of DM 2,000,000 claiming he had given his word of honour and the then party chairman Wolfgang Schäuble, Kohl's hand-picked successor, who wasn't cooperative either), Merkel criticized her former mentor, Kohl, and advocated a fresh start for the party without him. She was elected to replace Schäuble, becoming the first female chair of her party, on 10 April 2000. Her election surprised many observers, as her personality offered a contrast to the party she had been chosen to lead; Merkel is a Protestant, originating from predominantly Protestant northern Germany, while the CDU is a male-dominated, socially conservative party with strongholds in western and southern Germany, and the Bavarian sister party, the CSU, has deep Catholic roots.^{[citation needed]}

Following Merkel's election as CDU leader, she enjoyed considerable popularity among the German population and was favoured by many Germans to become Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's challenger in the 2002 election. However, she did not receive enough support in her own party and particularly its sister party (the Bavarian Christian Social Union, or CSU), and was subsequently out-manoeuvred politically by CSU leader Edmund Stoiber, to whom she eventually ceded the privilege of challenging Schröder; however, he squandered a large lead in the opinion polls to lose the election by a razor-thin margin. After Stoiber's defeat in 2002, in addition to her role as CDU chairwoman, Merkel became leader of the conservative opposition in the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag. Her rival, Friedrich Merz, who had held the post of parliamentary leader prior to the 2002 election, was eased out to make way for Merkel.^{[citation needed]}

Merkel supported a substantial reform agenda concerning Germany's economic and social system and was considered to be more pro-market than her own party (the CDU); she advocated changes to German labour law, specifically removing barriers to laying off employees and increasing the allowed number of work hours in a week, arguing that existing laws made the country less competitive because companies cannot easily control labour costs at times when business is slow.^[10]

Merkel argued for Germany's nuclear power to be phased out less quickly than the Schröder administration had planned.^{[citation needed]}

Merkel advocated a strong transatlantic partnership and German-American friendship. In the spring of 2003, defying strong public opposition, Merkel came out in favour of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, describing it as "unavoidable" and accusing Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of anti-Americanism. This led some critics^[who?] to characterize her as an American lackey. She criticised the government's support for the accession of Turkey to the European Union and favoured a "privileged partnership" instead. In doing so, she was seen as being in unison with many Germans in rejecting Turkish membership of the European Union.^{[citation needed]}

Comparisons

As a female politician from a centre right party, and a scientist, Merkel has been compared by many in the English language press to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Some have referred to her as "Iron Lady", "Iron Girl", and even "The Iron Frau" (all alluding to Thatcher, whose nickname was "The Iron Lady" -- Thatcher also has a science degree: an Oxford University degree in chemistry). Political commentators have debated the precise extent to which their agenda are similar.^[11]

In addition to being the first female German chancellor and the youngest German chancellor since the Second World War, Merkel is also the first born after World War II, and the first with a background in natural sciences. She studied physics; her predecessors law, business, history or were military officers, among others.^{[citation needed]}

Merkel topped Forbes magazine's list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.^[2]

On 30 May 2005, Merkel won the CDU/CSU nomination as challenger to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of the SPD in the 2005 national elections. Her party began the campaign with a 21% lead over the SPD in national opinion polls, although her personal popularity lagged behind that of the incumbent. However, the CDU/CSU campaign suffered^{[citation needed]} when Merkel, having made economic competence central to the CDU's platform, confused gross and net income twice during a televised debate. She regained some momentum after she announced that she would appoint Paul Kirchhof, a former judge at the German Constitutional Court and leading fiscal policy expert, as Minister of Finance.^{[citation needed]}

Merkel and the CDU lost ground after Kirchhof proposed the introduction of a flat tax in Germany, again undermining the party's broad appeal on economic affairs and convincing many voters that the CDU's platform of deregulation was designed to benefit only the rich. This was compounded by Merkel proposing to increase VAT to reduce Germany's deficit and fill the gap in revenue from a flat tax. The SPD were able to increase their support simply by pledging not to introduce flat taxes or increase VAT. Although Merkel's standing recovered after she distanced herself from Kirchhof's proposals, she remained considerably less popular than Schröder, and the CDU's lead was down to 9% on the eve of the election. Merkel was also criticized for plagiarizing a passage from a speech used by President Ronald Reagan in a 1980 US presidential debate for her own television election duel with Gerhard Schröder, the Social Democratic chancellor.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 September 2005, Merkel's CDU/CSU and Schröder's SPD went head-to-head in the national elections, with the CDU/CSU winning 35.3% (CDU 27.8%/CSU 7.5%) of the second votes to the SPD's 34.2%. Neither the SPD-Green coalition nor the CDU/CSU and its preferred coalition partners, the Free Democratic Party, held enough seats to form a majority in the Bundestag, and both Schröder and Merkel claimed victory. A grand coalition between the CDU/CSU and SPD faced the challenge that both parties demanded the chancellorship. However, after three weeks of negotiations, the two parties reached a deal whereby Merkel would become Chancellor and the SPD would hold 8 of the 16 seats in the cabinet.^[12][13] The coalition deal was approved by both parties at party conferences on 14 November 2005.^[14] Merkel was elected Chancellor by the majority of delegates (397 to 217) in the newly assembled Bundestag on 22 November 2005, but 51 members of the governing coalition voted against her.^[15]

Merkel with United States President Barack Obama.

Reports had indicated that the grand coalition would pursue a mix of policies, some of which differ from Merkel's political platform as leader of the opposition and candidate for Chancellor. The coalition's intent was to cut public spending whilst increasing VAT (from 16 to 19%), social insurance contributions and the top rate of income tax.^[16] Employment protection will no longer cover employees during their first two years in a job, pensions will be frozen and subsidies for first-time home buyers will be scrapped.^{[citation needed]}

Merkel had stated that the main aim of her government would be to reduce unemployment, and that it is this issue on which her government will be judged.^[17]

Chancellor of Germany

On 22 November 2005, Merkel assumed the office of Chancellor of Germany.^{[citation needed]}

This article may need to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information. (April 2009)

Foreign policy

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Angela Merkel's 2007 Speech to the European Parliament

Merkel in conversation with Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko (7 February 2009)

In her first week in office, Merkel visited the French president Jacques Chirac, the EU leaders gathered in Brussels, the Secretary-General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and received President Pohamba of Namibia.^{[citation needed]}

On 25 September 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel met the Dalai Lama for "private and informal talks" in Berlin in the Chancellery amid protest from China. China afterwards cancelled separate talks with German officials, including talks with Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries.^[18]

Policy on the Middle East and Iran

According to Mail & Guardian Online and Deutsche Welle, in August 2006, Merkel informed the German news agency Mehr that she had received a letter from the Iranian president Ahmadinejad.^[19][20] She further told Mehr, that to her opinion this letter contained "unacceptable" criticism of Israel and "put in question" the Jewish state's right to exist, and that therefore she would not formally respond to the letter.^{[citation needed]}

On 16 March 2007, Merkel arrived in Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state. She was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, an honor guard and many of the country's political and religious leaders, including most of the Israeli Cabinet.^[21][22] Until then, US President George W. Bush had been the only world leader Olmert had bestowed with the honor of greeting at the airport.^[23][24] Merkel was granted special permission to speak before Israel's parliament, which is normally done only by heads of state.^[25] Merkel made her first visit to the Middle East as President-in-office of the European Council in April 2007.^{[citation needed]}

Economic and financial policy

In her first government address, on 30 November 2005, Merkel announced her objective of improving the German economy and reducing unemployment.^{[citation needed]}

Liquidity crisis

Following major falls in worldwide stock markets in September 2008, the German government stepped in to assist the mortgage company Hypo Real Estate with a bailout which was agreed on October 6, with German banks to contribute €30 billion and the Bundesbank €20 billion to a credit line.^[26]

On 4 October 2008, a Saturday, following the Irish Government's decision to guarantee all deposits in private savings accounts, a move she strongly criticized,^[27] Merkel said there were no plans for the German Government to do the same. The following day, Merkel stated that the government would guarantee private savings account deposits, after all.^[28] However, two days later, on 6 October 2008, it emerged that the pledge was simply a political move that would not be backed by legislation.^[29] This confusion led to major falls in worldwide stock markets with the FTSE 100 and DAX stock exchanges falling 6% at one point. Other European governments eventually either raised the limits or promised to guarantee savings in full.^[29]

Cabinets

Merkel I

See also Cabinet Merkel I

The first cabinet of Angela Merkel was sworn in at 16:00 CET, on 22 November 2005.

• Angela Merkel (CDU) – Chancellor
• Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) – Vice Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) – Minister of the Interior
• Brigitte Zypries (SPD) – Minister of Justice
• Peer Steinbrück (SPD) – Minister of Finance
• Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) – Minister for Economics and Technology
• Olaf Scholz (SPD) – Minister for Labour and Social Affairs
• Ilse Aigner (CSU) – Minister for Consumer Protection, Food, and Agriculture
• Franz Josef Jung (CDU) – Minister of Defence
• Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) – Minister for Family, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth
• Ulla Schmidt (SPD) – Minister for Health
• Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD) – Minister for Transport, Building, Urban Development
• Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) – Minister for Environment, Nature Preservation and Nuclear Safety
• Annette Schavan (CDU) – Minister for Research and Education
• Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD) – Minister for Economic Co-operation and Development
• Thomas de Maizière (CDU) – Minister for Special Affairs and Director of the Chancellor's Office

On 31 October 2005, after the defeat of his favoured candidate for the position of Secretary General of the SPD, Franz Müntefering indicated that he would resign as Chairman of the party in November, which he did. Ostensibly responding to this, Edmund Stoiber (CSU), who was originally nominated for the Economics and Technology post, announced his withdrawal on 1 November 2005. While this was initially seen as a blow to Merkel's attempt at forming a viable coalition and cabinet, the manner in which Stoiber withdrew earned him much ridicule and severely undermined his position as a Merkel rival. Separate conferences of the CDU, CSU, and SPD approved the proposed Cabinet on 14 November 2005.^{[citation needed]}

Merkel II

See also Cabinet Merkel II

The second cabinet of Angela Merkel was sworn in on 28 October 2009.^[30]

• Angela Merkel (CDU) – Chancellor
• Guido Westerwelle (FDP) – Vice Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Thomas de Maizière (CDU) – Minister of the Interior
• Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) – Minister of Justice
• Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) – Minister of Finance
• Rainer Brüderle (FDP) – Minister for Economics and Technology
• Franz Josef Jung (CDU) – Minister for Labour and Social Affairs
• Ilse Aigner (CSU) – Minister for Consumer Protection, Food, and Agriculture
• Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) – Minister of Defence
• Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) – Minister for Family, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth
• Philipp Rösler (FDP) – Minister for Health
• Peter Ramsauer (CSU) – Minister for Transport, Building, Urban Development
• Norbert Röttgen (CDU) – Minister for Environment, Nature Preservation and Nuclear Safety
• Annette Schavan (CDU) – Minister for Research and Education
• Dirk Niebel (FDP) – Minister for Economic Co-operation and Development
• Ronald Pofalla (CDU) – Minister for Special Affairs and Director of the Chancellor's Office

Personal life

In 1977, the former Angela Kasner married physics student Ulrich Merkel. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982.^[31] Her second and current husband is quantum chemist and professor Joachim Sauer, who has largely remained out of the media spotlight. She has no children, but Sauer has two adult sons by a previous marriage.^[32]

Merkel is also prominent at the German national football team's matches, and is an honorary club member of Energie Cottbus.^{[citation needed]}

Honours

In 2006, Angela Merkel was awarded the Vision for Europe Award for her contribution toward greater European integration. In 2007 Merkel was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[33][34] She received the Karlspreis (Charlemagne Prize) for 2008 for distinguished services to European unity.^[35][36]

In January 2008, Merkel was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.^[37] She was also awarded the honorary doctorate from Leipzig University in June 2008^[38] and University of Technology in Wrocław (Poland) in September 2008.^[39]

Selected published works

References

External links

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• (English) Official Website of Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
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