Steve Boggess
Angela Merkel: Germany's new chancellor
By Steve Boggess
After years of Gerhardt Schroeder's Socialist Democratic Party running the German economy into the ground, the country decided it was time for a change.
Dr. Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg, Germany on July 17, 1954 and is chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union, the conservative sister to Gerhardt's liberal Socialist Party. Hamburg is in northern Germany and about a forty-five minute drive from the North Sea.
She was born Angela Dorothea Kasner and is the daughter of Horst and Herlind Kasner. Her father has been a Lutheran pastor since 1954 and she grew up in the country-side of Perleberg, which is fifty miles from the German capital of Berlin, which was also the former communist capital of the GDR, or German Democratic Republic.
Like most students, Angela was a member of the official, communist-led youth movement, Free German Youth. The underground movement, although communistic itself, was founded in 1936 to oppose Adolf Hitler's fascist rule and after Hitler's defeat of Europe, the movement was forced to move to Britain.
Dr. Merkel later became a member of the district board and secretary for agitation and propaganda of the Academy of Sciences, but she did not take part in the secular coming of age ceremony, which was common in the German Democratic Republic and was instead confirmed. She was educated at the University of Leipzig, which is about three hours south of Berlin.
At the university, she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. After ward, she worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences from 1978 to 1990. She graduated with a Ph.D in physics and worked in quantum chemistry, which is a branch of theoretical chemistry and also applies to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory to address issues and problems in chemistry.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism, she got interested in the new democracy that was now growing inside Germany called, in the German language, Demokratisher Aufbruch, or Democratic Awakening. Following the first, and only democratic election in the German Democratic Republic, she became the deputy spokesperson of the new government.
Her party merged with the West German CDU, or Christian Democratic Union and she became the Minister for Women and Youth in the former conservative chancellor of Germany's cabinet, Helmut Kohl.
In 1994, she was made the Minister for the Environment and Reactor Safety, which gave her greater political visibility and a platform on which to base her political career. As one of Helmut Kohl's protégées and his youngest cabinet minister, she was referred to by Kohl as "the girl."
According to an article in the German newspaper, Der Speigel, her background in the former GDR came in handy in post-unification politics as for the first thirty-six years of her life, she honed her skills at disguising her inner thoughts and feelings, which was essential in a society where every room might contain a State Security Police informer, and especially for a pastor's daughter.
Dr. Merkel is fluent in both English and Russian. From 1977 to 1982, she was married to fellow physicist Ulrich Merkel. Since 1988, she has been married to Berlin chemistry professor Joachim Sauer, who is the full professor of quantum chemistry at Humboldt University of Berlin, they have no children.
In the 1998 general election, Helmut Kohl was defeated and Angela became the Secretary General of the Christian Democratic Union where she over saw a string of Christian Democratic victories in six out of seven provincial elections in 1999 alone. On September 18, 2005, the Christian Democratic Union, and Gerhardt Schroeder's Social Democratic Party went head to head in the national elections but neither party could gain enough seats to form a majority, so, both chancellors claimed a victory. However, both parties reached an agreement in which Merkel would become chancellor.
In early 2006, the polls showed that Dr. Merkel, having been in office for only 100 days, is enjoying the highest approval rating among Germans ever to be recorded for a chancellor since 1949.
© Steve Boggess
After years of Gerhardt Schroeder's Socialist Democratic Party running the German economy into the ground, the country decided it was time for a change.
Dr. Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg, Germany on July 17, 1954 and is chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union, the conservative sister to Gerhardt's liberal Socialist Party. Hamburg is in northern Germany and about a forty-five minute drive from the North Sea.
She was born Angela Dorothea Kasner and is the daughter of Horst and Herlind Kasner. Her father has been a Lutheran pastor since 1954 and she grew up in the country-side of Perleberg, which is fifty miles from the German capital of Berlin, which was also the former communist capital of the GDR, or German Democratic Republic.
Like most students, Angela was a member of the official, communist-led youth movement, Free German Youth. The underground movement, although communistic itself, was founded in 1936 to oppose Adolf Hitler's fascist rule and after Hitler's defeat of Europe, the movement was forced to move to Britain.
Dr. Merkel later became a member of the district board and secretary for agitation and propaganda of the Academy of Sciences, but she did not take part in the secular coming of age ceremony, which was common in the German Democratic Republic and was instead confirmed. She was educated at the University of Leipzig, which is about three hours south of Berlin.
At the university, she studied physics from 1973 to 1978. After ward, she worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences from 1978 to 1990. She graduated with a Ph.D in physics and worked in quantum chemistry, which is a branch of theoretical chemistry and also applies to quantum mechanics and quantum field theory to address issues and problems in chemistry.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and communism, she got interested in the new democracy that was now growing inside Germany called, in the German language, Demokratisher Aufbruch, or Democratic Awakening. Following the first, and only democratic election in the German Democratic Republic, she became the deputy spokesperson of the new government.
Her party merged with the West German CDU, or Christian Democratic Union and she became the Minister for Women and Youth in the former conservative chancellor of Germany's cabinet, Helmut Kohl.
In 1994, she was made the Minister for the Environment and Reactor Safety, which gave her greater political visibility and a platform on which to base her political career. As one of Helmut Kohl's protégées and his youngest cabinet minister, she was referred to by Kohl as "the girl."
According to an article in the German newspaper, Der Speigel, her background in the former GDR came in handy in post-unification politics as for the first thirty-six years of her life, she honed her skills at disguising her inner thoughts and feelings, which was essential in a society where every room might contain a State Security Police informer, and especially for a pastor's daughter.
Dr. Merkel is fluent in both English and Russian. From 1977 to 1982, she was married to fellow physicist Ulrich Merkel. Since 1988, she has been married to Berlin chemistry professor Joachim Sauer, who is the full professor of quantum chemistry at Humboldt University of Berlin, they have no children.
In the 1998 general election, Helmut Kohl was defeated and Angela became the Secretary General of the Christian Democratic Union where she over saw a string of Christian Democratic victories in six out of seven provincial elections in 1999 alone. On September 18, 2005, the Christian Democratic Union, and Gerhardt Schroeder's Social Democratic Party went head to head in the national elections but neither party could gain enough seats to form a majority, so, both chancellors claimed a victory. However, both parties reached an agreement in which Merkel would become chancellor.
In early 2006, the polls showed that Dr. Merkel, having been in office for only 100 days, is enjoying the highest approval rating among Germans ever to be recorded for a chancellor since 1949.
© Steve Boggess
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