In his fundamental biography, Ralph Bollmann traces Merkel's life with critical sympathy. He also unfolds the story of her chancellorship placing enormous demands on her, beginning with the financial crisis, reaching to the refugee crisis and also including the Covid 19 pandemic. His brilliantly written book shows us an extraordinary woman at the center of power, who decisively shaped an entire age.

During Angela Merkel's reign, the familiar world order of the postwar period dissolved, and a new uncertainty took its place, most recently in the Corona Crisis even reaching into people's everyday lives. Thanks to her experience of the systemic breakdown of 1989/90, the former East German politician was better prepared for this challenge than many of her colleagues. She became so popular not least because she consistently kept all impositions away from Germans who were reluctant to change. But this harmony suddenly ended with the refugee debate.

Ralph Bollmann's biography is not only a captivating read, but also an impressive history of Germany and Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall.