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Federal Chancellor of Germany from November 22, 2005 to December 8, 2021.
Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg in 1954. She became Germany’s first female Chancellor and the first from communist East Germany in 2005. ‘Forbes’ magazine listed her as the most powerful woman in the world in 2006 and 2007. Western media often dub her the “Iron Lady” because of her no-nonsense approach to her work and reputation as a tough negotiator.
Merkel grew up in the former German Democratic Republic. She was a member of the socialist youth movement and participated in many communist-led activities. She speaks Russian fluently. She studied physics at the University of Leipzig in the 1970s and physical chemistry in Berlin in the 1980s. She earned a Ph.D. based on her research on quantum chemistry.
