After 31 years in politics - 16 of them as Germany's Chancellor - Angela Merkel finally stepped down last week.
Here's a look back over her political career.
Angela Merkel became the deputy spokesperson of the new pre-unification caretaker government under Lothar de Maizière.
Merkel in a CDU campaign poster, 1995.
Angela Merkel pats a kiwi on Motutapu Island in Hauraki Gulf being held by DOC ranger Hazel Speed, with Prime Minister John Key in 2014.
RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Barack Obama in southern Germany for the G7 summit in 2015. AFP / DPA
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 2015. AFP
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left), Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU President Donald Tusk and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas march in the unity rally in Paris in 2015. AFP
In 2015, she was Time's Person of the Year.
German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen talks to German Chancellor Angela Merkel after receiving flowers as she leaves the weekly cabinet meeting on 17 July, 2019 in Berlin. She went on to become European Commission President.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi and Donald Trump at the G7 Summit expanded session, on May 27, 2017 in Taormina, Sicily. Photo / AFP
Merkel leaders German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 summit in Canada in 2018. Photo / AFP
US President Donald Trump, right, talking with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and surrounded by other G7 leaders in 2018. Photo / AFP
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II receives German Chancellor Angela Merkel during an audience at Windsor Castle in Windsor, Berkshire on July 2, 2021. Photo / AFP
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