Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (, German: [aŋˈɡeːla doʁoˈteːa ˈmɛʁkl̩]; née Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German politician serving as the chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and by some commentators as the "leader of the free world".Merkel was born in Hamburg in then-West Germany and moved to East Germany as an infant when her father, a Lutheran clergyman, received a pastorate in Perleberg. She obtained a doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986 and worked as a research scientist until 1989.