fbpx

KidsKonnect

Angela Merkel Facts & Worksheets

Angela Merkel is a German politician who served as Germany’s first female chancellor for 16 years from 2005 to 2021.

Search for Worksheets

Worksheets /Social Studies /Angela Merkel Facts & Worksheets
Premium
Not ready to purchase a subscription? Click to download the free sample version   Download sample

Angela Merkel is a German politician who served as Germany’s first female chancellor for 16 years from 2005 to 2021. She was the second longest-serving chancellor in Germany. She has been called the de facto leader of the European Union (EU). She has also been dubbed “the most powerful woman in the world.”

See the fact file below for more information on Angela Merkel or you can download our 24-page Angela Merkel worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY

  • Angela Dorothea Kasner was born on July 17, 1954, in Hamburg, West Germany.
  • She was born to parents Horst Kasner, a Lutheran pastor, and Herlind Kasner (née Jentzsch), a language teacher specializing in English and Latin.
  • She has a younger brother named Marcus Kasner who works as a physicist and a younger sister named Irene Kasner who works as an occupational therapist.
  • Angela Merkel has German and Polish roots. 
  • Her paternal grandfather, Ludwik Kasner, was of Polish descent, worked for the German police, and participated in Poland‘s fight for independence in the early 20th century.
  • Ludwik and his family converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism when Merkel’s father was a child.
  • In 1957, Merkel’s father relocated his family to the town of Templin in East Germany so he could pursue his career in theology.
  • Merkel and her siblings grew up in the socialist German Democratic Republic.
  • It was common for children raised in the socialist German Democratic Republic to be part of the state’s youth organizations; in Merkel’s case, she became a member of the Young Pioneers in 1962, then of the Free German Youth in 1968.

EDUCATION

  • Merkel finished high school in Templin in 1973. 
  • She excelled in mathematics and learned to be fluent in Russian at school, for which she was recognized as the best in her class. 
  • After graduating from high school, she matriculated at Karl Marx University in Leipzig (now the University of Leipzig) where she studied physics.
  • At university, she met her would-be husband, fellow physics major Ulrich Merkel; they tied the knot in 1977, then divorced in 1982. 
  • In 1978, she earned her degree in physics.

SCIENTIFIC CAREER

  • From 1978 to 1990, Merkel worked as a faculty member and studied at the Central Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin.
  • In 1986, she was awarded a doctorate based on her thesis on the topic of quantum chemistry.
  • In line with her work in quantum chemistry, she later published several papers in this field.

EARLY POLITICAL CAREER

  • Angela Merkel began her political career after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
  • She became part of the Democratic Beginning political party and was appointed the press spokeswoman in February 1990.
  • In the same month, the party formed a coalition with the German Social Union (DSU) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
  • The party’s chairman, Wolfgang Schnur, was found to be working for the Ministry for State Security, also known as the Stasi, as an informant, which resulted in his expulsion from the Democratic Beginning. 
  • Following East Germany’s first and only democratic election in March 1990, Merkel became the deputy spokesperson for the new pre-unification caretaker government under Lothar de Maizière.

CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC UNION LEADER

  • Merkel became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in August 1990.
  • In the first election after the reunification of Germany took place in 1990, Merkel won a seat in the Bundestag (German parliament).
  • In the CDU, she served as the Minister for Women and Youth (from 1991 to 1994), Minister for Environment (from 1994 to 1998), and General Secretary (from 1998 to 2000).
  • In 2000, she became the first female and non-Catholic chairperson of the CDU.
  • In 2002, she became leader of the opposition in the Bundestag, after candidate Edmund Stoiber failed to defeat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

2005 NATIONAL ELECTION

  • In the 2005 national election, the CDU/CSU (Christian Social Union, sister party of CDU) defeated the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) by a slight margin.
  • However, neither CDU candidate Angela Merkel nor SPD candidate Gerhard Schröder won the majority.
  • As a result, a kind of government called a “grand coalition” was formed between the two parties, allowing Merkel to become chancellor.

CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY

  • Merkel served as Chancellor of Germany for four terms: from 2005 to 2009; from 2009 to 2013; from 2013 to 2017; and from 2017 to 2021.
  • During her public service as chancellor, which spanned 16 years, Merkel had been referred to as “the most powerful woman in the world” and “the de facto leader of the European Union.”
  • Merkel was first sworn in as Chancellor of Germany on November 22, 2005, making her the first female leader to hold the position.
  • At the beginning of her first term, Merkel made clear that the primary goal of her government was to address the unemployment crisis.
  • Merkel and the CDU were re-elected, with more seats, in 2009.
  • With increased votes, the CDU subsequently formed a coalition government with the CSU and the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
  • The European debt crisis was in effect during Merkel’s second term. 
  • To address the crisis, Merkel believed pro-austerity was the solution.
  • In June of 2010, Merkel and Wolfgang Schäuble, the Minister of Finance, announced implementing Germany’s all-time steepest budget cuts as part of the government’s austerity measures to deal with Europe’s economic issues.
  • Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Merkel decided to phase out nuclear power, particularly with the immediate closure of Germany’s eight oldest nuclear plants.
  • In the 2013 national election, Merkel secured a third term with a decisive victory, with CDU winning 42 percent of the vote.
  • The FDP failed to enter parliament, however, so the CDU/CSU agreed to form another grand coalition government with SDP instead.
  • Merkel’s third Cabinet was sworn in on December 17, 2013.
  • In December 2015, Merkel was recognized as Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
  • In October of 2017, Merkel won the seat for her fourth and final term as chancellor.
  • In this term, forming a coalition with SPD proved challenging, as SPD preferred to be in opposition to the CDU/CSU.
  • After six months of negotiations, the longest of such kind in German history, the two parties agreed to  form an alliance.
  • Merkel’s fourth cabinet was sworn in on March 14, 2018.
  • In 2017, Merkel led the Forbes list of the most powerful women in the world for the seventh consecutive year.
  • In October 2018, Merkel made it clear that she had decided not to seek re-election as chancellor in 2021.
  • In November of 2021, a new kind of coalition called the “traffic light coalition” was announced, with Olaf Scholz of the SPD nominated as Merkel’s successor.

Angela Merkel Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Angela Merkel across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching kids about Angela Merkel, who is a German politician who served as Germany’s first female chancellor for 16 years from 2005 to 2021.

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Angela Merkel Facts
  2. Merkel’s Biography
  3. CDU Timeline
  4. True or False?
  5. Political Leaders
  6. Political Glossary
  7. Angela’s Best Traits
  8. Compromise Quotes
  9. About Germany
  10. My Personal Letter
  11. A Poem About Leadership

Link/cite this page

If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.

Link will appear as Angela Merkel Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, November 30, 2022

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

Related Resources