For the past five years Angela Merkel has been lauded the most powerful woman in Europe. Today (25 August) her influence has seen her top Forbes' World's Most Powerful Women list.

This political record breaker, the first ever female German Chancellor, has overseen Europe’s largest economy since 2005, and has been credited with competently steering the country out of recession. She even has her own official Mattel-designed, trouser-suited Barbie. Her achievements present one question: how is it we know so little about her in the UK? Stylist asked The Times’ former German correspondent Anne McElvoy for the compelling story behind the woman.

I first encountered Angela Merkel when I was the Eastern European correspondent for The Times, watching the tumultuous events of 1989 unfold in Berlin. Merkel was a spokesperson for one of the many small umbrella groups of protesters and I remember her as a serious young woman. She was actually in her mid-30s then, yet looked fresh-faced and much younger.

The following year, when the conservative Christian Democrats triumphed in the first free elections in spring 1990, she was appointed deputy press spokesperson for the first (and last) freely elected East German government. It wasn’t a glorious role at all – the press conference was fronted by her boss and Merkel was just another conduit of information for journalists in a hurry. She was also widely mocked by her peers, pegged a “milkmaid” on account of having spent the first 35 years of her life living in the old communist East Germany, with a provincial accent to prove it. But behind the scenes, Merkel shone.

Lothar de Maizière, former German prime minister and now a senior lawyer in Berlin, was particularly impressed by Merkel, telling me, “She had something that stood out, even above those senior to her. She was so precise, with a fantastic analytical capability and an eye for detail. She’d bring in the main international papers, all marked up and say, ‘That’s the significant story’ or ‘This is what you should read’ and she was usually right.”

Born for Politics

Merkel’s analytical background was the result of a strict academic upbringing. Her father was a clergyman in the East German provinces and Merkel was a serious child. She stood out at arithmetic, winning a medal at the “maths Olympics” held to promote the brightest children in the Eastern Bloc. After school she studied at Leipzig, one of the top universities in the East and went on to become a research scientist before moving into politics.

Shortly after being appointed deputy press spokesperson, Merkel was made the Women and Families Minister for the conservative Christian Democrats and was taken under the wing of then German chancellor Helmut Kohl. He often referred to her as mein mädchen (“my girl”).

Yet when Kohl ran into trouble with a major funding scandal in 1998, which would later end his career, Merkel shirked loyalty to her boss and was one of the first of his allies to call for a “new beginning”. Ever ambitious, Merkel planned to run for the chancellorship in 2002 but was out-manoeuvred by a rival. Undeterred, by 2005 she’d seized the nomination and serious power was within her grasp. Her first election was a touch-and-go affair – Merkel’s policies included market reforms in health, a move towards workfare and a hike in VAT to cut labour costs. The Social Democrats appeared to have won but it was Merkel who captured voters’ hearts on the night of the count. When her bullish rival Gerhard Schröder declared himself the winner before all the votes were cast and said Merkel’s claim to victory was “arrogant”, it led to public opinion swinging her way. Out of a messy election result, came the ‘grand coalition’ of major parties – with Merkel, Germany’s first woman leader, at its helm.

In profile: Angela Merkel