“We've always had this experience that things take long, but I'm 100% convinced that our principles will in the end prevail. No one knew how the Cold War would end at the time, but it did end. This is within our living experience... I'm surprised at how fainthearted we sometimes are and how quickly we lose courage.”

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.