Angela Merkel has set out to secure her reputation in a 700-page memoir in which the former German chancellor defends her 16 years in office. Critics increasingly believe that her leadership led Germany to chronic underinvestment, an underfunded military, and the growth of the far right.

Few world leaders have left office as lauded as Angela Merkel. When she stepped down as chancellor in 2021, after 16 years, Germany’s economy was the envy of Europe. Mrs Merkel had saved the euro and guided her nation through the pandemic.

Few politicians have been more lauded during their careers and more excoriated in retirement than Angela Merkel. The former German chancellor who held the post longer than anyone except Bismarck and Helmut Kohl was seen as the towering European politician of her time before stepping down in 2021.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel recalls Vladimir Putin’s “power games” over the years, remembers contrasting meetings with Barack Obama and Donald Trump and says she asked herself whether she could have done more to prevent Brexit.

Germany's longtime former chancellor, Angela Merkel, defended her policy on Ukraine on Tuesday, before presenting her memoirs in Berlin. She stuck by her refusal to pave the way for Ukraine to join the Western military alliance NATO via a Membership Action Plan at a summit in Bucharest in 2008.