Angela Merkel: Europe's Most Influential Leader, by Matthew Qvortrup

In preparation for our summer vacation in Berlin, I wanted to read a little about Germany. I picked this biography of Angela Merkel and an overview of German history that I'll write about in another post. Author Matthew Qvortrup is a professor of political science at Coventry University in the UK, and with this book he has written an interesting narrative of Angela Merkel's life. The focus is less on her early life and more on her development as a politician. I found her background fascinating. Ms. Merkel grew up in East Germany and is the first post-reunification chancellor to come from the East. She is fluent in Russian which has helped her over the years as she negotiates trade agreements and other issues with Russia.

Growing up as the daughter of a pastor in the GDR, she had to learn to be very careful with her words and actions. In college, Ms. Merkel studied physics and mathematics; she was a scientist before she turned to politics. Physics was a field that was relatively safe from Marxist theory and a refuge for many. After German reunification, she became involved in politics and rose rapidly in the Christian Democratic Union, a center-right political party. Her ability to compromise has allowed her to achieve much in her time as chancellor. This book provides significant insight to her development as a politician and signature achievements, particularly her stance on the immigration crisis. This book was published in 2017, so it doesn't contain much about recent U.S.-German relations, unfortunately.

As I mentioned above, I was reading this book to give myself a sense of German history and current events to prepare for my recent week-long vacation in Berlin. I wondered before the trip whether we would encounter any negative reaction because of Trump's horrendous treatment of Ms. Merkel at various international meetings. However, we were met with nothing but friendliness and generosity. My basic conversational German skills were enough to get by, and almost everyone spoke English, so when my German broke down we had no problem communicating.

This book had an index, a lengthy notes section, eight pages of color photographs, and a glossary. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys current events and biographies. I particularly liked reading about politics that had nothing to do with our current horror show of an administration! It's restorative to read about a politician with values, someone who's trying to do some good in the world.

Matthew Qvortrup. Angela Merkel: Europe's Most Influential Leader. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2017. 377 pages. ISBN 9781468315035.