Rebel Girls Lead: 25 Tales of Powerful Women

Rebel Girls Lead: 25 Tales of Powerful Women — page 7
8 ANGELA MERKEL CHANCELLOR Once upon a time in Templin Germany there lived a seven-year-old girl named Angela One Sunday she was listening to her father's sermon in church when her mother started to cry What's the matter Angela asked They are going to build a wall her mother said They want to seal off the border between East Germany and West Germany Angela was stunned Why would they build a wall she thought People should be free to go wherever they like The Berlin Wall prevented East Germans from going to the West They were also barred from listening to the news coming from the other side Every day Angela hid in the school bathroom with a little radio It was illegal to listen to stations from the West But she didn't care She wanted to know what was happening in her country When Angela grew up she studied chemistry She wanted to become a university professor But the government had a special force known as the secret police They told Angela that she would be promoted but only if she spied on others Angela refused She never became a professor She was working as a researcher in a lab in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was demolished She called her mom and said I think we're free to go to the West Indeed they were Angela eventually became chancellor of Germany the head of the whole country She is a determined leader who knows the pain that walls can cause She never wants her people to be divided again BORN JULY 17 1954 GERMANY