Angela Merkel will serve 4 more years as the chancellor of Germany — here's how 'the new leader of the free world' got where she is today
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel just won another term in office.
• Before she entered the political realm, she had a successful career as a scientist.
• At one point, the Stasi — East Germany's secret police — attempted unsuccessfully to recruit Merkel.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel won her fourth term in office Sunday, further solidifying her position as the de facto leader of Europe.
Some observers are even calling her the new leader of the Free World.
Merkel has become a fixture in the international leadership scene, having helmed her country since 2005. However, long before her foray into politics, she worked in an entirely different field. The German Chancellor has a PhD in quantum chemistry and was once a scientist in East Germany.
Here's a look at her early career:
Merkel excelled at Russian language, mathematics, and science in school and ultimately studied physics at the University of Leipzig from 1973 to 1978.
Source: The New Statesman, "Women Leaders of Europe and the Western Hemisphere"
Toward the end of her time there, she tangled with the Stasi — East Germany's secret police. When she applied to be a professor at an engineering school, the Stasi attempted to recruit her to spy on her colleagues. She refused, and the job went to someone else.
Source: TIME
After earning her doctorate in quantum chemistry from the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1986, Merkel worked at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin until 1990. She was the only woman in her section and authored a paper on surface hydroxyls.
Source: The New Yorker, The Making of Merkel, BBC
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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