About this episode
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is stepping down after 16 years. Author and former NPR correspondent Kati Marton has written a new biography of Merkel titled, appropriately, The Chancellor . Marton told NPR's Sarah McCammon that Merkel's upbringing in East Germany before the wall fell prepared her for a future as a politician. But it also created some blind spots in her governing; allowing the far right movement, centered in former East Germany, to gain a foothold in the German Parliament. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy