In which city was Angela Merkel born?

Angela Merkel has led a remarkable life. Her first career was as a research scientist: she completed her doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986. Things changed rapidly with the revolutions of 1989 and she entered politics, her second career. So many superlatives have been attached to this unassuming woman: she has been characterised as the effective leader of the European Union and even as the most powerful woman in the world. The simple facts are impressive enough: she has been Chancellor of Germany for four terms (from 2005 to 2021, the first female chancellor), a former President of the European Council, a former senior G7 leader, and has been the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the European Union.

Although her early career was spent in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Angela Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner on 17 July 1954 in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. While she was still a small child her family moved away to the state of Brandenburg, when her father, a Lutheran clergyman, accepted a post in Perleberg. Although it is only a fairly short distance from Hamburg (about 130 km) this involved a move from West to East Germany and shaped her early life. Merkel grew up in the countryside 90 km north of East Berlin.

Angela Merkel announced that, when her term as Chancellor ends in 2021, she would not be seeking a further term. The clergyman's daughter is probably going to be missed.