Angela Merkel ‧ The Fateful Years of a Chancellor (2024)

Fall 1989: Revolution in the air. Life in transition. Turning point. Also for the physicist Angela Merkel, who has a doctorate. She is looking for a political home, wants to help shape the new and, almost by chance, ends up with the "Democratic Awakening", which later becomes part of the CDU. It is the starting signal for her political rise, which leads "from nowhere" into Helmut Kohl's government within a few months. What drove the newcomer and career changer Angela Merkel into politics?

In 1999, Merkel was CDU General Secretary - it was the time of the "Twilight of the Gods": the "Chancellor of Unity", Helmut Kohl, was voted out. The CDU is concerned with the question of who will be the strong man in the future. Nobody has a woman on their list. When the donation scandal overtook her party, Angela Merkel acted consistently and rigorously - shed herself and her party from the "father". "Kohl's girl", long underestimated by men, finally becomes party leader in 2000. How did the outsider Angela Merkel manage to assert herself in her party?

In 2005, Angela Merkel became Chancellor: the first woman to hold this office, the first East German and, at 51, also the youngest. Girl power!? Merkel's governing style: Moderate, pragmatic, just don't polarize. After Basta Chancellor Schröder, Merkel appears to many to be indecisive and hesitant. The diamond as a symbol of calm. Some people call her “mom” – and they don’t always mean that in a positive way. What does Merkel do with power and what does power do to her?

Crisis year 2015: Euro crisis, war in eastern Ukraine, refugee question in Europe. Troubled times. Angela Merkel makes a decision that continues to polarize today: she allows refugees to enter Germany from Hungary without registering or checking their asylum claim. And she tells the Germans, “We can do it!” The Chancellor is taking a stand. It divides the country and ultimately leads to the AfD becoming stronger. Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in Germany, is becoming an enemy. Why did she act the way she did during the crisis?

Angela Merkel has been in power for a decade and a half and is preparing to withdraw from politics. Here too she is the first: the first to withdraw in an orderly manner. She had already given up the CDU party leadership in 2018. She will not run for the next election. There will be a change of government in 2021. Tattoo: Angela Merkel's term of office ends after 5,860 days, missing the record of her sponsor, the "eternal chancellor" Helmut Kohl, by just ten days. First-time voters can hardly remember a Germany without Angela Merkel. Just a few weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Merkel's fame is quickly crumbling. Germany does not appear to be well prepared for the storms of the times. What remains after 16 years of Chancellor Merkel?