What Personality Type is Angela Merkel?

Drawing by Elizabeth Wagele from "The Enneagram Made Easy"

Angela Merkel (born 1954), was elected chancellor of Germany in 2005 and re-elected in 2009. She is an ENTJ in the MBTI^TM personality system: extrovert, intuitive, thinking, judging. Another way to describe her type is as “extroverted thinking with intuition.” This type is known for leadership abilities and strength. In the Enneagram personality system, the toughest type, the Asserter, is often an ENTJ or the sensate version, an ESTJ. At 51, she was the first woman to serve as chancellor of Germany and the first Eastern German to lead the reunified country. She is also a scientist and the chairwoman of her political party, the Christian Democratic Union. Frau Merkel is often referred to as “the decider.” She was on top of Forbes magazine's list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women" in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011. She was Forbes’ fourth most powerful person in the world in 2011.

Her stance against nuclear power was inspired by the disaster in Japan. Germany hopes to achieve 50 percent of its power from wind, water, solar and thermal energy by 2030. Reaching this goal has been slowed, however, because of the financial crisis in Europe.

This quote of Merkel’s sounds like a Perfectionist wanting to do things right, but the other information we have about her indicates it has more to do with the Asserter’s role of enforcing what needs to be done:

There is pressure on the financial markets, that cannot be denied ... Some countries are in a very complicated situation. There was an interest here to find solutions. My task was to see to it that the solutions respect the procedures and rules that we have...- Bloomberg.com 2012-06-29

Angela Merkel as a child

Merkel, the daughter of a minister, grew up in East Germany, and is often described as the world’s most powerful woman and the de facto leader of the European Union. Because her father was a minister, the family was able to travel freely between East and West Germany. When she grew up she became a physical chemist after being awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry. She worked as a researcher, published several papers. and entered the East German government before German reunification. She was elected to the Bundestag in 1990. In 2007, Merkel became President of the European Council and chaired the G8. Among other awards, she received the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for the year 2009 from the Indian government for international understanding.

Germany has had a problem with migrants from other countries. In 2010 Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her party that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany had failed: “The concept that we are now living side by side and are happy about it does not work" and "we feel attached to the Christian concept of mankind, that is what defines us. Anyone who doesn't accept that is in the wrong place here." One news source quoted her as saying immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany's culture and values. Another said members of her cabinet and Merkel herself are introducing Islamic education and classes in schools.

Please visit my web site for my list of other famous Enneagram types, including where you can find my blogs about them.

Regarding my blog on empathy of last week on Word Press, this web site on empathy was highly recommended to me.