Angela Merkel

May 30, 2016
Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Qvortrup presents a well-researched but unsatisfying biography of Germany’s chancellor. He follows Merkel’s path: a Lutheran girlhood in East Berlin, her first marriage, her years as a scientist, her entry into politics during German reunification, and her rise to the chancellorship, which he follows right up to the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis. The book reads more as a history than a biography; the early chapters are heavy on historical context and light on personal detail and later chapters explore political negotiations and decision-making, with very few explorations of Merkel’s non-work life or of her psychology and motivations. Qvortrup’s writing comes alive when recounting political machinations (such as those behind Merkel’s 2005 electoral win), but the overall narrative and prose are workmanlike at best and clunky at some points. (On the building of the Berlin Wall: “The Cold War had entered a new phase and life would never be the same again. Not until 1989, at any rate.”) The reader leaves the book with plenty of facts about Merkel’s life and possessing a better understanding of recent German politics, but knowing little more of Merkel’s worldview, motivations, and personality.

Starred review from May 15, 2016
A biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (b. 1954) that provides insight and clarity into Germany's often underreported role in shaping the European political landscape.In his retelling of the trajectory of Merkel's career path, Qvortrup (Political Science/Coventry Univ.) highlights differences in cross-Atlantic political culture in ways no news account can. The daughter of a Lutheran minister in communist East Germany, Merkel was a prizewinning student in mathematics and languages who went on to complete a doctorate in quantum chemistry. Only with the collapse of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 did she enter the political arena. Her rise to political prominence was rapid and dramatic. As an emerging politician in the East, she won sponsorship from leaders in the West, among them Helmut Kohl, who served as chancellor from 1982 to 1998. Male chauvinist opponents derisively called her "Kohl's little girl," but they learned one among many such lessons when she successfully overthrew Kohl as party leader in a corruption scandal. Qvortrup makes clear that the qualities of character she brought to bear were significant; her rise was not just a result of the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time or knowing the right people. As chancellor, the author demonstrates, Merkel has shown a meticulous attention to detail and "obsession with getting the facts right" that can be traced back to her childhood: when she was 9, her motto was "never show incompetence." Merkel combined those qualities with ruthless courage in seizing opportunities as she became head of her party and then the government. Consolidating power in Europe's strongest country, she also became the continent's major political leader. Qvortrup outlines both the depth and flexibility of a mind and character unbound by the limits of ideology. This eye-opening biography, drawing from rich behind-the-scenes knowledge, is necessary reading for anyone who wants to broaden his or her perspective on the world today.

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June 1, 2016
Angela Merkel has been Chancellor of Germany for the past 11 years; arguably, she remains the most powerful political leader in Europe. Yet most Americans are unfamiliar with her personal or political life, so this first English-language biography can help alleviate that shortcoming. British political-science professor Qvortrup is clearly an admirer of Merkel as a person and political leader. He regards her upbringing as a pastor's daughter in totalitarian East Germany as essential in forming her world view. Hard working, efficient, and cautious, she rose to the top of the male-dominated political milieu (which clearly did not preclude her remarkable success), where her adherence to relatively conservative economic policies has maintained stability in Germany. Her criticized insistence on austerity as the price for assisting the economics of weaker members of the Eurozone will ultimately prove to be correct, and Qvortrup views her widely unpopular decision to accept huge numbers of refugees from the Syrian civil war as, perhaps, her finest hour. This is a well-written and informative tribute to an extraordinary political leader.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)