Biography: Germany outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel

• Angela Merkel was born on 17th July 1954 in Humberg by Angela Kasner.
• Her family later moved to communist East Germany the GDR soon after her birth.
• Graduated from high school in 1973
• She got married to a physics student Ulrich Merkel in 1977 but later divorced in 1982
• Studying quantum physics she earned a doctorate in 1986.
• She entered politics shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall becoming a deputy government spokeswoman for East Germany’s last prime minister.
• In December 1990 she won a direct mandate for the Christian Democratic Union party in the Bundestag elections.
• Later in 1991, she was elected by the then chancellor Helmut Kohi to his cabinet as the federal minister for women and youth.
• She also served as a federal environment minister till 1998.
• She became the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) secretary-general in 1998 after the party’s defeat in elections.
• In 2000 she was then elected the party leader.
• In 2005 she ran against the incumbent chancellor and won.
• At 51years of age, her victory made her Germany’s youngest and first-ever women chancellor.
• Her first international visit after the high office election was in Paris France.
• In January 2006 she visited the US under president G.W. Bush.
• He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in her first days of office up to her last he was still.
• In June 2007 she hosted her first G8 summit as chancellor in Heiligendamm.
• In 2014 she was the longest-serving head of government in the European Union.
• She exhibited high expertise when the world and Europe faced the financial crisis.
• In 2018 the lower house of parliament voted her the 4th mandate after a 6-month stalemate and in December that year she quit CDU/CSU presidency.
• She was the most European leader to visit China and most in Germany history with 12 trips and it later became its biggest trading partner.
• She has made up to 500 state visits in her 16 years tenure as the German chancellor.
• She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Johns Hopkins University in the US on her last official visit as chancellor in July 2021.
• She is set to retire as chancellor at 67years following a general election on September 26th, 2021.

Compiled by Abdul Kimera