Angela Merkel, orig. Angela Dorothea Kasner, (born July 17, 1954, Hamburg, W.Ger.), Chancellor of Germany (2005– ). Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, earned a doctorate in physics at the University of Leipzig (1978) and later settled in East Berlin, where she worked as a quantum chemist. In 1990, shortly before Germany’s reunification, she joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Elected as a Bundestag deputy later that year, she became the protégé of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who appointed her to several ministerial positions. In 1999 a finance scandal hit the CDU, and Merkel drew attention for her criticism of Kohl. The following year she was elected CDU leader. In 2005 the CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union, won the general election but failed to capture a majority. A deal was reached that gave Merkel the chancellorship, and she was sworn in on Nov. 22, 2005, becoming the first woman to hold the office. Merkel’s mandate as chancellor was renewed in the parliamentary elections of 2009.
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