This is a wonderful and well-deserved tribute to Angela Merkel, who recently stepped down as leader of Germany and (for now) leader of the western world (Trump abdicated that position). Angela Dorothea Merkel has been Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union from 2000 to 2018. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel is the first female chancellor of Germany. (Not sure why the post says 18 years; she was Chancellor for 16 years.) She was born in Hamburg (in West Germany) but moved as an infant to East Germany when her father, a Lutheran clergyman, had a pastorate there. She earned a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry, then worked in research until the democratic revolution of 1989, when she became involved in political life. The story below about her domestic life reminds me of what Harry S Truman said, when a reporter asked what he would do when he got home to Independence, Missouri. He said he would carry the empty luggage to the attic.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is what a great leader does not look like, Merkel’s predecessor, Gerhard Schröder. As soon as Schröder left office, he went to work for the Russians, more or less.
From wikipedia:
Since 2017, Schröder serves as the chairman of Russian energy company Rosneft. He is currently the chairman of the board of Nord Stream AG and of Rosneft, after having been hired as a global manager by investment bank Rothschild, and also the chairman of the board of football club Hannover 96.
As Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder was a strong advocate of the Nord Stream pipeline project, which now supplies Russian gas directly to Germany, thereby bypassing transit countries.
At the time of the German parliamentary election, according to Rick Noak of The Washington Post:
In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friend Schroeder hastily signed the deal just as he was departing the office from which he had been voted out days earlier. Within weeks, he started to oversee the project implementation himself, leading the Nord Stream AG’s shareholder committee.[75]
On 24 October 2005, just a few weeks before Schröder stepped down as Chancellor, the German government guaranteed to cover 1 billion euros of the Nord Stream project cost, should Gazprom default on a loan. However, this guarantee had never been used.[76] Soon after stepping down as chancellor, Schröder accepted Gazprom’s nomination for the post of the head of the shareholders’ committee of Nord Stream AG, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.
I have long been an admirer of Angela Merkel, her fortitude, her humility, her honor and, most of all, her world leadership. The contrast between her and the USA’s 45th president was as stark as has ever been seen between two leaders, her a real one and him a definitive fake. I, too, wish her well.
Angela Merkel is a perfect example of why I like to be proven wrong. When she became chancellor in late 2005, I was as opposed to her as one could be. She was a protege of Helmut Kohl, not an intellectual by any means (but a gastronomical genius), one who was on the wrong side of history throughout the 70s and early 80s, and the definition of a reactionary, pandering politician. But the fall of the Wall in 1989 did something to Kohl. Like the Grinch, his heart grew three times its size, and his understanding of his place history began to take hold. But he was a bumbler with parallels to George H.W. Bush that are unmistakably alike. Merkel, with her bad haircut and provincial awkwardness, was the first–and only–politician from the former East Germany that he took under his wing. Few–myself included–took her seriously, when he elevated this unknown parliamentarian to a overlooked, minor ministry in 1991. Neither did she stand out when she she was elevated toward the end of his chancellorship to a conservation and energy minister position. Even her Bavarian Christian Socialist (CSU) counterparts didn’t take her seriously when she served in a shadow government; they were sure they would take the chancellorship when Gerhard Schröder’s came to an end in 2005 (Joe, you got your analysis above right on the mark). The fight for the chancellorship that put her into office was seen as a temporary place marker until the arrogant, unpopular CSU leader was pushed aside and the new leader would push Merkel out.
But she endured. It would be hard for Americans to understand. She is a singularly uncharismatic politician. I saw her at a really in around 2007 and just did not get it; she was booooring. But what few understood at the time, that people throughout Germany implicitly understood, was that what they craved was competence, not entertainment. Pensions are public in Germany, that’s the big domestic issue. She made sure that they remained stable after the 2008 meltdown. Medical insurance and access to care is the other big domestic issue. These were relatively untouched after the meltdown. Merkel governed, she didn’t grandstand. More importantly, she understood what mattered to her constituents. Not only did she make sure the trains ran on time, retirees knew their pensions were safe, everyone knew their medical insurance would remain good. That included dental and eye care. And her leadership in the EU kept the Euro stable as the dollar fluctuated wildly from 2008-2013.
While Great Britain fretted about how the EU was robbing them of their sovereignty, Merkel doubled down in her nation’s commitment to strengthen it. As they pursued Brexit, she stood strong and would allow the EU to be cowered or blackmailed. She became a steady foreign policy ally to the administrations of G.W. Bush and Obama. She stood up to the Idiot and Putin. And most importantly, in my personal view, she defied popular opinion in her own nation to respond in the most humane policy when responding to the crises of Syrian and Eastern European refugees. She paid a huge domestic political price but never wavered. She was aware of German history–that of the Third Reich, post war Germany, and of totalitarian East Germany–and rose to the occasion that history demanded.
I was in Germany in January 2006 and thought she would be overwhelmed by the reactionary politics led by the Bavarian CSU. I was wrong. I thought she would be cowered by Brexit and Putin. I was wrong. I thought for sure that the refugee crisis would finally reveal her hypocrisy. I was really wrong. Now I know she was the most consequential post-WWII political leader, ironically, in many ways the heir to the Social Democratic legacy of Willy Brandt. And much like Brandt, her legacy will likely never be recognized for how consequential it was to posterity. But her legacy is more important. Quiet, competent leadership will hopefully inspire future leaders, women and men alike. She proved that one can be domestically consequential, strong in foreign policy by building alliances, and still be a humble, decent public servant. She gloriously proved all her critics wrong at every turn. She’s still in office for a few months, I fear we will miss her, but I really hope she’s built something enduring and will prove me wrong again.