Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

Next Bookmark and Share Comments
  • In-Country Power
  • International Power
  • Respect
  • Military Strength
  • Intelligence
  • Special Skill: Teutonic Titan

Official Stats

  • Official Title: Chancellor
  • Government: Well-established democracy
  • Years Left in Office: To 2011; re-election possible
  • Political Classification: Center-right
  • Education: MS, PhD Quantum Physics
  • Age: 57 (born July 16, 1954)

Angela Merkel Facts and Information

Important Points

  • Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany, and the first woman to ever hold the position
  • Merkel is center-right, fiscally and socially conservative, although has liberal leanings on environmental and energy policy
  • Merkel's Germany is economically and financially sound: the biggest and strongest economy in Europe, 4th largest in the world
  • Merkel is really stuck and losing support due to her policies on bailing out Greece and the Eurozone from economic collapse
  • Merkel is routinely voted as one of the most powerful women in the world

The Rundown

She’s the Teutonic titan of Europe! Leading Europe’s largest economy and top tier world political power player, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is a significant force well beyond the borders of Bavaria! Her decisions affect the future of the Euro, of the EU, the world economy, and even of nuclear energy use….and she is routinely ranked one of the most powerful women in the world! She’s downright Merkel-licious!

However, this first female chancellor of Germany had perhaps the least likely background preparation for her position. Raised in a small town in the quaint countryside north of Berlin (in communist-era East Germany) by a Lutheran pastor and English-teacher mother, Merkel went on to earn a BS in physics and her PhD in quantum chemistry and then worked as a researcher…this lady is a full-fledged scientist! But Germany, and the USSR, were a-changin’ and communism was a-collapsin’ so a new path was opened to Angie’s energies…

As the USSR started to implode in 1989, Merkel got involved in the growing democracy movement after the fall of the Berlin Wall, joining the new party Democratic Awakening. Following the first (and only) democratic election in the East German state, she became the deputy spokesperson of the new pre-unification caretaker government…from scientist to democracy spokesperson: how’s that for a rapid introduction into politics?

After East and West Germany unified into the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, in the very first post-unification election, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag (that’s the German equivalent to the US Congress) as a member of a party that later merged with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The CDU is a center-right, Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany, of which Merkel is not just a member, she has been leader of the party since 2000…thus, if in America, she would be a Republican.

But just barely. Her fiscal and social policy is largely conservative, but she does have a ‘green’ streak in her: she is a big advocate of green energies and also of halting global warming. In fact, Merkel is the only leader of a large industrial nation that has proposed serious global policy on halting greenhouse gas emissions…not that any of them have been embraced yet, but Merkel does try….

But I am getting ahead of the story…back to Angie’s ascent in the 1990’s: Merkel then became Minister for Women and Youth in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s cabinet. In 1994, she was made Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety, which gave her greater political visibility and a platform on which to build her political career. Angie was on the move, upward. After Kohl lost power, she was leader of the conservative opposition in the lower house of the German parliament, and eventually became the leader of a coalition between the CDU and the CSU (the Bavarian Christian Social Union: a sister party to the CDU)...a position that then put her in the top slot leadership of the German government itself, thus launching her into the Chancellorship in 2005!

When Merkel came to power she said her government would be judged by how many jobs it created and by how much it had cut the deficit, and in her first 4 years she did a bang-up job! The German economy has been strong, has the lowest unemployment in Europe, and remains a powerhouse of the continent! Her pro-market, anti-labor policies have not garnered her any favor with the liberal left, but such is politics. However,  she also spent a lot of her time dealing with cultural/immigration issues and bailing out the crippled Eurozone…much to the chagrin of an increasing number of German voters. And her stance on these issues?

Well, let’s put it this way: Merkel has outright stated that she believes multiculturalism is a failed experiment for German, has pushed for decreased movement of peoples within the EU zone, and openly opposed Turkey’s entry into the EU—just so you know, the major immigrant group in Germany are Turks, so there is some personal friction going on there, as many Germans feel that a lot of the Turks have simply refused any attempts at assimilation. This feeling by locals that they are ‘losing their culture’ to foreigners is a common theme that is gaining support both within Germany and the EU as a whole.

Fiscally, Merkel has kept the German haus in order, but unfortunately Europe as a whole has not fared so well, and our favored Frau is catching sheisse for that too! Say what? Merkel has recently drawn fire for her response to the Greek economic crisis/collapse…which is now turning into a possible collapse of the Eurozone and the Euro itself! How can Merkel be getting negative press for a bunch of Greek shenanigans?

Well, her first controversial decision came in her attempt to bail-out the Greek economy in a similar manner to the U.S. government’s bail-out of its financial and auto industries…with German taxpayer money of course. This was an extremely unpopular decision in Germany and that caused some political backlash from the public. More recently, she as taken a much harder-line stance on any aid given to Greece, even demanding the IMF become a player in the game backing some of these loans. Despite that, as Merkel’s Germany remains THE most critical contributor to debt relief in the Eurozone, members of Angela’s own political party are starting to defect from supporting her on the basis that Germany has already given too much and should pull back from being Europe’s monetary life raft….

But Angie is stuck is really stuck on this one! She (and the solid German economy and fiscally responsible German taxpayers) simply have to contribute the most to salvaging the whole EU and Eurozone experiment: if they allow Greece to crash and burn, many other European countries will likely follow, and then the whole shebang is going down the toilet, which will of course negatively affect all of Europe, even Germany. But the Germans are getting rightly sick of having to pick up the bill for the southern Europeans states’ complete fiscal idiocy. Can’t say I blame them. So Merkel is doing the right thing for Europe (and for Germany in the long run) but may have to pay the short term political price by losing all sorts of public and political party support.

But she is a strong leader with a stoically solid backbone, so never fear. In this respect, comparisons have been made to the fiscally conservative Margaret Thatcher (famous former Prime Minister of UK back in the 80’s): both women are conservative bulwarks of their societies, and have shown the ability to be cool-headed yet hard-core firm in their policy decisions in attempts to guide their countries through difficult economic times. It is from these decisions that they both earned the moniker ‘The Iron Lady’...although in Angie’s case, it has been modified to “Iron Frau”!

Other things to know about Merkel: she is the only major world power leader that is moving towards green energies in a dedicated way, as referenced earlier. She started her administration pretty pro-US, but that Uncle Sam love have been flagging as of late, with German support of the Afghan campaign at an all time low…and Germany actually refused to support the Euro/US/NATO invasion of Libya. Relations and trade with both Russia and China are at all time highs, and Merkel’s Germany has increasing clout as a respected world power that plays well with others…all others, not just its Team West buddies.

Germany is pretty much always invited to the UN Permanent Security Council meeting, is a major player in the G-7 and G-20, and an industrial giant…and so you should always know the leader at the helm of this country And for a while longer, its the Merkel! I go berserk-el for the Merkel!

2011 UPDATE: Wowsers!!! Huge big nuke deal just went down in Germany, and I ain’t talkin’ meltdown here! In the wake of the Japanese tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster, Merkel announced that her state has totally renounced nuclear energy use, and will have all reactors off-line by 2022…which is a stunning 180 degree turn from her administration’s position just 9 months prior!

This move by the 4th largest economy and a world superpower in its own right is sending shockwaves thru the nuclear industry and the world. This could very well be a “JFK:we-will-put-a-man-on-the-moon” moment in history that shapes the future of the planet as Germany may spur a true movement towards alternative energies that other countries embrace.  The downside? Well, Germany is a major industrial power with major fuel needs, and no one in their right mind thinks that the road to ‘green’ will be easy, or even possible. They will be even more heavily reliant on fossil fuels in the decades to come…hey man, they got to keep those BMW’s hauling ass on the Autobahn!

In addition, the Greek/Eurozone bail-outs combined with an increasing deficit due to tax cuts and unpopular anti-labor (anti-union) policies have led to Merkel slowly losing her grip on the Chancellorship. The most recent set back she has suffered has been a defeat of her party at the polls, with the Christian Democratic Union having lost its party majority in the legislature. Things don’t look rosy for Angie, but don’t count the Iron Frau out just as yet!

Ich bin eine Berliner! Although that means nothing in this context, I always like saying it.

Photos

Plaidcasts Involving this Leader


View All



Translate This Page