

Fall 1989: Revolution in the air. Life in transition. Turning point. Also for the physicist Angela Merkel, who has a doctorate. She is looking for a political home, wants to help shape the new and, almost by chance, ends up with the "Democratic Awakening", which later becomes part of the CDU. It is the starting signal for her political rise, which leads "from nowhere" into Helmut Kohl's government within a few months. What drove the newcomer and career changer Angela Merkel into politics?
Fall 1989: Revolution in the air. Life in transition. Turning point. Also for the physicist Angela Merkel, who has a doctorate. She is looking for a political home, wants to help shape the new and, almost by chance, ends up with the "Democratic Awakening", which later becomes part of the CDU. It is the starting signal for her political rise, which leads "from nowhere" into Helmut Kohl's government within a few months. What drove the newcomer and career changer Angela Merkel into politics?
In 1999, Merkel was CDU General Secretary - it was the time of the "Twilight of the Gods": the "Chancellor of Unity", Helmut Kohl, was voted out. The CDU is concerned with the question of who will be the strong man in the future. Nobody has a woman on their list. When the donation scandal overtook her party, Angela Merkel acted consistently and rigorously - shed herself and her party from the "father". "Kohl's girl", long underestimated by men, finally becomes party leader in 2000. How did the outsider Angela Merkel manage to assert herself in her party?