Angela Merkel is the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (DCU) of Germany. A former research scientist with a doctorate in physical chemistry, she entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989 and briefly served as deputy spokesperson for the first democratically-elected East German government headed by Lothar de Maiziere in 1990.
Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and has been reelected ever since.
She was appointed as the Minister for Women and Youth in the federal government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1991 and became the Minister for the Environment in 1994. And her political ascension continued further from there.
Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union throughout her tenure as Chancellor of Germany.
She has been named twice as the world’s second most powerful person by Forbes magazine, the highest ranking ever achieved by a woman
In December 2015, Merkel was named as Time magazine’s Person of the Year with the magazine’s cover declaring her to be the ‘Chancellor of the Free World.’
In May last year, Merkel was named the most powerful woman in the world for a record 10th time by Forbes. On November 20, 2016, Merkel announced she would seek re-election to a fourth term.