(ˈaŋɡela doʁoˈteːa ˈmɛɐ̯kəl) (born Angela Dorothea Kasner, 17 July 1954, in Hamburg, Germany), is the Chancellor of Germany. Merkel, elected to the German Parliament from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union CDU since 9 April 2000, and Chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary party group from 2002 to 2005. She leads a Grand coalition with its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and with the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), formed after the 2005 federal election on 22 November 2005. Health care reform and problems concerning future energy development have thus far been the major issues of her tenure.

Merkel is the first woman to assume the chancellery of reunited Germany and the first woman to lead Germany since it became a modern nation-state in 1871. She is also, as of 2007, the youngest person to be German chancellor since the Second World War. Merkel, considered by Forbes Magazine to be the most powerful woman in the world at present, is only the third woman to serve on the G8 after Margaret Thatcher and Kim Campbell, and in 2007 became the second woman to chair a G8 summit after Margaret Thatcher. She is, as of 2008, one of two current female heads of a European goverment, the other being Yulia Tymoshenko.

In her function as Chancellor of Germany, Merkel was (rotative, 1st term 2007) also president of the European Council.

In 2007, Merkel became a Member of the Council of Women World Leaders, a group of women heads of state and government.