World’s crisis manager steps down

It's a lesson many politicians -- mostly male -- have learned the hard way over the past 15 years: never underestimate Angela Merkel.

The German Chancellor is preparing to step down later this year, having long ago cemented her position as one of the world's most successful political leaders.

In her time in office, she has dealt with five UK prime ministers, four French presidents and seven Italian prime ministers. When President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Wednesday, he'll be the fourth American commander-in-chief she's worked with.

Yet despite her track record, Merkel, the leader of the world's fourth-biggest economy, has spent much of her political career having to prove herself.

Her counterparts have tried to overpower or even humiliate her. Vladimir Putin once brought a Labrador dog into his meeting with the Chancellor who is famously afraid of dogs. Donald Trump told her she was stupid. Silvio Berlusconi once left her waiting for 15 minutes while he chatted on the phone.

When she became the first woman to take Germany's top job in 2005, many deemed her too inexperienced and uncharismatic to last.

Bild, Germany's most-read newspaper, marked the occasion with a front-page photo and a headline reading "Miss Germany!" Even within her own party, she was referred to as "das Mädchen," German for "the girl."

But while other leaders have come and gone over the intervening years, Merkel has endured, enjoying an unparalleled popularity. "Das Mädchen" became nicknamed "die Mutti," a mother figure and symbol of stability.

Political scientist Joyce Mushaben, said Merkel was seen as a "temporary" leader when she first rose through the ranks of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.

Mushaben, a Merkel biographer and professor of University of Missouri-St. Louis, said the key to Merkel's success lay in the unique mix of her background and her abilities.

Her experience of growing up as a pastor's daughter in Communist East Germany has deeply influenced her political decision-making, and as a former scientist with a doctorate in quantum chemistry, she often approaches problems in the same way as complex calculations, Mushaben said.