Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel (born 17th July 1954) is the leader of the German Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and the current Chancellor (Bundeskanzlerin) of Germany. She was born in Hamburg and raised in the former German Democratic Republic, where she also finished her PhD in theoretical Physics/Chemistry.
Merkel grew up in the former Communist East Germany (DDR) just outside Berlin. Merkel was educated in Templin and at the University of Leipzig, where she studied physics (1973-1978). She worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences (1978-1990). After graduating with a doctorate in physics working in quantum chemistry. In 1989 she became involved in the growing democracy movement and, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, she got a job as government spokesperson following the first democratic elections. She joined the CDU two months before German reunification and within three months she was in Helmut Kohl's cabinet as minister for women and youth. In 1994 she was made minister for the environment.
Her East German background has stood her in good stead. For the first 36 years of her life, she honed her skills at covering up or suppressing her feelings -- essential in a society where practically every room contained a Stasi informer, especially if you were a pastor's daughter. Speaking near perfect English and remarking on her background as an Ossi she says, "Anyone who really has something to say doesn't need make-up".
Merkel fears that the EU has failed to define its common interests "for the (commercial) battles of the future" now Europe's cold war priorities of keeping "peace and freedom" have been achieved. "This is where I think Europe needs to learn a lot, not to concentrate too much on whether bicycle paths are built the same way in Portugal and north-west Germany."
Domestically, Merkel recognises the need for change in the country's consensual model. "In Germany, we are always facing the danger that we are a little bit too slow. We have to speed up our changes."
