“After the reunification, there was a certain sense of foreignness because daily life in the former East German states was completely turned inside out - everything from the shops to the bureaucracy to the working world.”

German stateswoman and retired politician

Angela Merkel is a German stateswoman and retired politician, who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is also the only woman and the only former East German to have held that office. Before becoming chancellor, she led the Christian Democratic Union from 2000 to 2018 and served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005. Her public life is defined by long years at the center of German politics and by the offices she held at the highest level.