Das erste Leben der Angela M

The authors interviewed eyewitnesses and researched archives about the early life of Angela Merkel. They demonstrate that the Chancellor did not discover her political ambition only during the time of the reunification. As a member of the Soviet-influenced scientific elite of the GDR, she was purposeful and conforming to the system. Under the influence of Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika, she then emerged as a reform communist advocating for a democratic socialism in an independent GDR. Yet, just fifteen months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, she became a federal minister in the reunified capitalist Germany. Ralf Georg Reuth and Günter Lachmann show how this early life has influenced her second life as CDU chairwoman and Chancellor, up to the present day.