Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1954. Her father, Horst Kasner, was an official in Christian institution and her mother, Herlind Kasner, was an English teacher. When Angela was only weeks old, her father decided to move the family to East Germany and take up ecclesiastical duties. Therefore, Angela, the oldest of three children, was raised on the outskirts of Templin, a town north of Berlin. The Kasners lived in the seminary at Waldhof which was home to several hundred handicapped people and this became an important experience for Angela.
Though considered to be elite, the Kasners lived under constant suspicion. Angela didn’t relate to the G.D.R. but trying to be at peace with the system. As a little girl, she was physically clumsy but a brilliant, ferociously motivated student. In the 8th grade, she was recruited to compete in East Germany’s Russian-language Olympiad and won at countrywide level 3 times.
Angela studied physics at Leipzig University and earned a doctorate in quantum chemistry in Berlin. Some dissidents in East German later criticized her accommodation with the system and attributed her doctorate to her active role in the Free German Youth. But others thought that most people were whisperers and not to blame. After the reunification, Angela participated in democratic politics and her careful thinking before action became the key to her success.
