Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg in 1954. She became Germany’s first female Chancellor and the first from communist East Germany in 2005. ‘Forbes’ magazine listed her as the most powerful woman in the world in 2006 and 2007. Western media often dub her the “Iron Lady” because of her no-nonsense approach to her work and reputation as a tough negotiator.

 

Merkel grew up in the former German Democratic Republic. She was a member of the socialist youth movement and participated in many communist-led activities. She speaks Russian fluently. She studied physics at the University of Leipzig in the 1970s and physical chemistry in Berlin in the 1980s. She earned a Ph.D. based on her research on quantum chemistry.

 

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Merkel became involved in the growing democracy movement. She won a seat in the unified German parliament in 1990 and was appointed Minister for Women and Youth. In 1994, she was made Minister for the Environment. This was her springboard to rise to the top. She was elected Chancellor in November 2005.

 

In 2007, Merkel took on the six-month rotating position of President of the European Council and chair of the G8. That same year, she met the Dalai Lama in Berlin, thus angering the Chinese. In 2008, she spoke of Germany’s “Holocaust Shame” in Israel’s Knesset. She also received the Charlemagne Prize "for her work to reform the European Union".