Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner in 1954, in Hamburg, West Germany, the daughter of Horst Kasner (1926–2011; né Kaźmierczak), a Lutheran pastor and a native of Berlin, and … See more

Merkel continued her education at Karl Marx University, Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. While a student, she … See more

2005–2009: First CDU–SPD grand coalition
Election
On 30 May 2005, … See more

Immigration, refugees and migration
In October 2010, Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam See more

1989–1990: German reunification
The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 served as the catalyst for Merkel's political career. Although she did not participate in the crowd celebrations the night the wall came down, one month later Merkel became … See more

On 31 January 2022, less than two months after she left office, her long-time rival Friedrich Merz, who she beat in 2002 to become See more

Merkel has been criticised for being personally present and involved at the M100 Media Award handover to Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had triggered the See more