Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German retired politician and chemist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021 and was the first woman to hold that office. She previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union from 2000 to 2018. During her chancellorship, Merkel was frequently referred to as the de facto leader of the European Union (EU) and the most powerful woman in the world. Beginning in 2016, with Donald Trump's election, she was often described by liberal media as the leader of the free world.
Official portrait, 2010
Merkel's paternal grandparents when engaged: Margarethe and her betrothed, Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak, in his Polish Blue Army uniform
Lothar de Maizière and Merkel, 1990
Merkel in a CDU campaign poster, 1995
The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of the federal government of Germany, and the commander-in-chief of the German Armed Forces during wartime. The chancellor is the chief executive of the Federal Cabinet and heads the executive branch. The chancellor is elected by the Bundestag on the proposal of the federal president and without debate.
Chancellor of Germany
Willy Brandt speaking at an SPD meeting in Dortmund, 1983
The cabinet bench in the Reichstag building (to the left of the flag) with the raised seat of the chancellor in the front row
Robert Habeck, the current Vice Chancellor of Germany
