Growing up under communism gives a different perspective to Germany's incoming chancellor.
By Susan Taylor Martin
She's been called cold, dowdy and uncharismatic. Add one more adjective: triumphant.
On Monday, 51-year-old Angela Merkel said she had reached "a good and fair" deal to become the first female chancellor in German history, ousting Gerhard Schroeder and ending a deadlock over leadership of a large, influential yet deeply troubled American ally.
Reflecting voter discontent, neither of Germany's two main parties won a majority of parliamentary seats in the Sept. 18 elections. The result: a "grand coalition" - the first since the 1960s - that will force Merkel's Christian Democrats to share power with Schroeder's Social Democrats.
Merkel faces a tall order over the next four years.
At home, the reunification of Germany after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall has been a painful process, resulting in high unemployment and social discord.
Internationally, one of her priorities will be improving relations with the United States that badly soured when Schroeder refused to support the war in Iraq or commit troops.
"I think Bush never completely forgave him for that," says Hugo Kaufmann, director of the European Union Studies Center at City University of New York. "Whether we would be buddies again right way, it's hard to say, but (Merkel's rise) surely cannot do any harm to the relationship."
With most Germans strongly opposed to the war, however, warmer relations are unlikely to translate into boots on the ground.
Merkel and her party "did criticize the Schroeder government, which in their view was needlessly antagonizing the Americans," says Dana Allin at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies. "But they didn't really suggest strong support for American policy, which would be very difficult since that's a sure voter loser in Germany."
The United States also has been at odds with Germany, Britain and France over Iran's nuclear ambitions. The European powers have favored a diplomatic approach, while the Bush administration has talked of tougher steps, including U.N. sanctions.
"Germany in general has stayed united with the other two partners, but is considered sort of the weak link," Allin says. "My guess is that (Merkel's) Christian Democrats might be marginally more in line with the U.S. position."
Despite the challenges and her often unflattering public image, Merkel should do well, says one expert who has met her.
"She doesn't have quite the same polished style as many of the other West German politicians who grew up in the system, but she's clearly a very talented politician who knows how to use power when given it," says Jack Janes, director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.
"One of the good things is that she has a sense of service and commitment to the country, but one of the problems during the campaign was getting that across. She will have to grow into the job, but (almost) every chancellor has done that, and I think she will, too."
Merkel, who is married but childless, grew up outside Berlin in what was then East Germany. A science whiz, she earned a doctorate in physics and worked as a chemist. She was drawn into politics during the growing democracy movement; after the wall fell, she became a Cabinet minister in the reunified government.
In her 15-year political career, Merkel has been known as a tough operator who didn't hesitate to break with her mentor, former chancellor Helmut Kohl, when his role in a bribery scandal surfaced. "She's perfidiously unfaithful," said a commentary in the Frankfurter Allgemeine .
In challenging Schroeder, Merkel went up against a chancellor who failed to reform German's economy during his seven years in office. The jobless rate is about 11 percent nationwide and 18 percent in the once-Communist east, where wages rose far faster than productivity after reunification.
"That meant production costs per worker in the east were much higher than it was possible to justify and that led to high unemployment," notes Stanley Black, an expert on the German economy. "The method by which they tried to integrate the east was really badly designed, and they have been paying a heavy cost for the past 10 years."
Merkel's Christian Democrats vowed to speed up economic reforms, among them making it easier for employers to dismiss workers. The Social Democrats, meanwhile, pledged to protect the welfare state and workers' rights.
Initially, Merkel did well in the polls but suffered next to Schroeder's charismatic style. To soften her frumpy image, she changed her hairdo, wore brighter clothes and campaigned to the Rolling Stones' Angie, the BBC reported.
In September, voters ousted Schroeder's coalition, but stopped short of giving Merkel's party enough seats in the Bundestag to form a government. After a three-week stalemate, the deal was struck: Merkel would get the chancellorship while her opponents' would fill several powerful Cabinet seat, including foreign minister.
The chairman of the Social Democrats wouldn't rule out a job for Schroeder in the government. But other party officials said they doubted he would accept a position, or that the Christian Democrats would allow it. Schroeder, 61, has not commented on his plans.
Given the difficulties in power sharing, the two political parties may struggle with reforms, but "I think they'll come to grips," says Janes of the American Institute. "They both need to accomplish something if they want to look good to voters in four years."
Although Merkel's main goal will be tackling Germany's internal problems, she also confronts major international issues including expansion of the European Union. With 82-million people, Germany is the biggest player in the EU, which is still struggling to integrate Poland and nine other new members from eastern Europe.
"Germany will be looking toward the East as well as the West," Janes predicts, noting Merkel's years in the former Communist Bloc give her a "totally different" type of experience than her predecessors had. "She will be looking to reach out to Warsaw and other states in the east to see if (they will give) additional momentum to the EU, which at the moment is sort of flailing around."
The EU has begun talks on whether to admit Turkey, a huge, poor country that would be the EU's first Muslim nation. Merkel opposes membership, which potentially puts her at odds with the United States.
"But everybody expects these negotiations to go on a least a decade and she's not going to be in office then," Janes says. "So they could literally kick that can down the street and not worry too much about it."
Despite differences between the countries, Merkel becomes chancellor at a time when frosty U.S.-German relations are thawing, due in part to what another expert sees as weaknesses on both sides of the Atlantic.
In Germany and the rest of Europe, "you don't have any strong leadership that is capable at this moment of articulating a vision of what the Europeans' role in the world is and what their relations with the U.S. should be," says Allin of the International Institute.
Meanwhile, "the United States is looking very weak in a lot of ways, mainly because Iraq has gone so badly but also because of the president's problems with Hurricane Katrina. In these circumstances, a more triumphalist, neocon vision has not panned out just yet."
