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Is Angela Merkel The Greatest German Chancellor Ever?
A brief assessment of German leaders.
In the coming weeks, the curtains will be drawn on the one of the longest serving and competent democratically elected leaders in the world. Angela Merkel, who has spent the last 16 years being Chancellor of Germany will step aside for a successor, who undoubtedly will have very big shoes to fill.
As the leading economic powerhouse in Europe, Germany has never been short of strong leaders. It was on the watch of the Otto Von Bismarck that Germany became Unified in 1871, fighting a series of wars with France, Austria and Denmark, winning on all fronts and claiming for itself, territories from each of the three vanquished nation states. Allied to these victories, Bismarck was able to consolidate his country’s position at the heart of the continent, much to the chagrin of Great Britain.
Even when after it lost the first world war and had to pay large reparations to the allies, there were intellectuals and economists who thought that leaning hard on Germany was a very bad idea; This thinking was pervasive among the German people. The subsequent collapse of the Weimar Republic and the resulting hyperinflation made it easy for the third Reich to take over the reins of power.