| Abstract: | As a woman and an East German, Angela Merkel beat long political odds to become chancellor of Germany in November 2005. In addition, she overcame her party's poor electoral performance, out-manoeuvring political rivals in negotiations for a ‘grand coalition’. Merkel's rise to power can be divided into three phases. Like many other female political leaders of her generation in Germany, she was initially apolitical. She only became politically active during the dying days of the German Democratic Republic. The second phase was her apparently unremarkable political ascent as ‘Kohl's Mädchen’ (girl), when she had little independent standing of her own. The final phase began when a major finance scandal propelled her to the top of party ranks. She benefited from a gendered stereotype as a Trümmerfrau who could rebuild the conservative's moral standing out of the affair's ruins. But her continued success had much to do with successful political learning of how to turn critics' attacks against themselves. |
