Angela Merkel was born on July 17, 1954, in Hamburg, Germany. She grew up in Templin, a small town in eastern Germany. After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Merkel joined the civic political movement Demokratischer Aufbruch. In 1990, this movement merged into the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Merkel was awarded her doctorate in 1986 with a thesis on quantum chemistry at the Zentralinstitut für physikalische Chemie (ZIPC). From 2005 to 2021, Merkel was Chancellor of Germany. She is the first woman and the first resident of the former GDR to hold these positions.

During the refugee crisis, Merkel remained true to Europe's commitment to welcoming people fleeing war and strife in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. She also tackled the causes of this crisis. Merkel did so by working for peace in Syria and its surroundings. She reinforced this position with her famous statement "Wir schaffen das.”