Discuss the life and achievements of Angela Merkel.
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Answers will vary. Merkel was born in the former West Germany in 1954, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor and a member of the Social Democratic Party, but grew up under the communist regime in East Germany. After earning her doctorate in physics in 1978 and working at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin, she became part of the "Democratic Awakening," which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. As a spokeswoman for this movement and for the speedy reunification of Germany, she was elected to parliament in the first East German free elections in 1990, and subsequently joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Her rise through the party ranks were at first sidetracked because of shady financial dealings, but Merkel was eventually elected the first chairwoman of the CDU. Merkel was unusual in many regards: she was the first woman to lead the party, as well as the first non-Catholic to do so, and the first politician from the former communist regime to achieve political power in the unified Germany. From 2000 on, she restored faith in the CDU and won the 2005 elections, becoming the first woman leader in the history of Germany, a position she has used to strengthen Germany's role in the EU and the EU's role internationally.
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