Anyone wishing to find information about Angela Merkel can do so through current daily sources, on the Internet or read the big biographies by Langguth and others. This book aims to close the gap between those bite-sized sources of information and the long biographies. The first are short and disjointed. The latter are time-consuming and, as well, partly written from a one-sided (positive or negative) perspective. As the sub-title suggests, this short biography concentrates on the early period, partly shrouded in mystery, up to arrival in Germany's chancellery.