New Yorker Profiles Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel

THIS "PROFILE" IS LONG!   THERE ARE MANY GEMS THOUGH.  GOOD LUCK!

Profiles December 1, 2014 Issue

The Quiet German

The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world.

By George Packer

Herlinde Koelbl has been photographing Merkel since 1991. Koelbl says that Merkel has always been “a bit awkward,” but “you could feel her strength at the beginning.” Credit Photographs by Herlinde Koelbl / Agentur Focus / Contact Press Images

A summer afternoon at the Reichstag. Soft Berlin light filters down through the great glass dome, past tourists ascending the spiral ramp, and into the main hall of parliament. Half the members’ seats are empty. At the lectern, a short, slightly hunched figure in a fuchsia jacket, black slacks, and a helmet of no-color hair is reading a speech from a binder. Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and the world’s most powerful woman, is making every effort not to be interesting.

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Find out details of Angela's youth as an award - winning Russian speaker growing up in Brandenburg.  Learn what she thought of  rebellious West Germans in the '60's (The Baader Meinhof Gruppe) and of Americans.  Read about her initially cold relationship with Obama, which has warmed considerably -- even while he's grown far less popular.  Yes, there are clues to her private life.  There is discussion of Germany's history and politics (including fascinating details about the destruction and rebuilding of the amazing parliament building, the Reichstag).  We also learn how incredulous Germans initially were to hand their nation's government over to her.  And how she's quietly relishing the country's stability now, which has fueled her popularity, while her opponents find she's made of Teflon.

Might she run for a 4th term? Certainly her success cannot last.  -- Right?