Auf Wiedersehen, Chancellor!

Mutti (mummy), who ruled the German Fatherland for sixteen years, is stepping down.

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is a politician like none other. An antithesis of the stereotype, she is neither an orator nor does she bank on her charisma. Raised in East Germany, she defied mindboggling odds to rise to the highest office in the country. In her sixteen years at the helm, Ms. Merkel molded a unified Germany into the fourth-largest economy in the world. Her policies modernized the country and loosened a very conservative system.

Ms. Markel earned her doctorate in quantum chemistry and worked as a researcher before entering politics. Her educational background probably plays a significant role in her style of leadership. Pragmatic, analytical, and down-to-earth, she dealt with some of the most vexing problems in her exemplary manner.