Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel is the Chancellor of Germany, a German politician. She was elected to office in 2005, and has been the leader of the Christian Democratic Union party since 2000. Prior to her time as a politician (which began in 1989), Merkel was a quantum chemist working for the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In the present day, Angela Merkel is considered by many to be the most powerful female politician in the world, and seen as a leader of the free world.

Angela was born on July 17, 1954 in Hamburg, West Germany. Her middle name is Dorothea, and her zodiac sign is Cancer. Her maiden surname was Kasner.

Angela Merkel – Her Religion

She is a Lutheran, a denomination of Protestant Christianity. Lutherans believe that religious scripture is the ultimate authority on all matters of faith. Merkel’s father was a Lutheran pastor.

“I am a member of the evangelical church. I believe in God and religion is also my constant companion, and has been for the whole of my life. We as Christians should above all not be afraid of standing up for our beliefs,” she has said. (1)

Merkel has been criticized for allowing Muslim immigrants into Germany. As a response, the German leader has said that her country doesn’t have a problem with “too much Islam” but “too little Christianity.”

Said the Chancellor, “If we not have to start apologizing for showing a friendly face in response to emergency situations, then that’s not my country.” (1)

Angela Merkel – Her Politics

Merkel is the elected leader of her party, the Christian Democratic Union. As such, her politican bent is center-right, or a mixture of liberal and conservative but leaning towards the conservative side.

The Christian Democratic Union formed after the end of the Second World War. It was a response to Germany’s rise of fascism. The CDU wanted to bring together both sides of people with democratic beliefs – the conservatives and the liberals – and unite them on a foundation of western Christian guiding principles.

Merkel is an advocate of allowing more refugees from African countries to emigrate to Germany. (1)

Angela Merkel – Her Relationships

The politician has been married twice. Merkel’s first marriage was at the age of 23, in the year 1977, to a physics student named Ulrich Merkel. Even after the couple divorced in 1983 Angela kept her ex-husband’s surname.

Merkel met her second husband, professor Joachim Sauer, in 1981. They became romantically involved after Angela’s divorce but didn’t officially marry until 1998. Sauer is very shy to the press, even staying away from his wife’s appointment as Chancellor so he could avoid the spotlight of the cameras.

She has no children.

Angela Merkel – Personal Facts & Trivia

In the mid-1990s Merkel was bit by a dog. From the incident, she developed an intense fear of dogs. Vladimir Putin seemed to try and leverage this phobia against Merkel: when the German Chancellor first visited the Kremlim, Putin presented her with a plush dog toy. When she visited Putin at his Black Sea home, the Russian President brought in his commanding black Labrador dog for a press photo-op with Merkel. (2)

In the 1970s Merkel was asked to join the Stasi, the much-feared East German secret police. She reportedly turned down the offer by saying that she would make a terrible spy because she liked to talk too much. (3)

She is reportedly a very good cook, and makes breakfast every morning for her press-shy husband. (3)

Merkel is a big fan of football. She has been known to listen to football games while in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliamentary house.

Sources:

1: Christian Today

2: The Guardian

3: Time

Photo by European Peoples Party. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License.

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