{{Short description|Family of the chancellor of Germany}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox family | name = Family of Angela Merkel | caste = | crest = | crestcaption = | image = Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak in the uniform of Haller's Army with fiancée Margarethe.jpg | imagecaption = Merkel's paternal grandparents, [[Ludwig Kasner|Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak]] and Margarethe | birth_place = | region = [[Germany]]<br>[[Poland]] | early_forms = | origin = | members = [[Angela Merkel]], [[Horst Kasner]], Ludwig Kasner | connectedmembers=Herlind Kasner, Willi Jentzsch, Marcus Kasner | otherfamilies = Kasner | distinctions = | traditions = [[Lutheranism]] | heirlooms = | estate = | meaning = | footnotes = }} {{Angela Merkel series}}
The family of [[Angela Merkel]], the former [[chancellor of Germany]], is of [[Germans|German]] and [[Polish people|Polish]] descent. Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner on 17 July 1954 in [[Hamburg]]. The Kasner name is derived from Jan Kaźmierczak, a Pole from [[Poznań]] who lived in the 18th century. Merkel's grandfather changed the name to Kasner in 1930. Merkel has been married twice, and kept the name of her first husband, Ulrich Merkel. Angela Merkel's family was extensively discussed in a 2013 biography.<ref>Kornelius, Stefan (2013). ''Angela Merkel: Die Kanzlerin und ihre Welt''. Hoffmann und Campe. {{ISBN|978-3455502916}}.</ref>
==Paternal relations==
===Horst Kasner=== {{Main|Horst Kasner}} Horst Kasner (né Horst Kaźmierczak; born 6 August 1926 in Berlin, died 2 September 2011 in Templin) was the father of Angela Merkel, and was a Protestant theologian.
===Ludwig Kasner===
{{Main|Ludwig Kasner}} Ludwig Kasner (né Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak; born 1896 in Posen, [[Germany]] (now [[Poznań]], Poland), died 1959 in [[Berlin]]) was the paternal grandfather of Angela Merkel. He served as a soldier in the Polish [[Blue Army (Poland)|Blue Army]] which took part in Poland's struggle for independence. In the aftermath of the [[First World War]] he moved to Berlin, the hometown of his fiancée Margarethe, and worked for the Berlin Police.
==Maternal relations==
=== Herlind Jentzsch === Herlind Kasner (née Jentzsch; born on 8 July 1928 in the Free City of Danzig, died 6 April 2019 in [[Templin]]) was the mother of Angela Merkel and a teacher of English and Latin. She continued to teach English at an adult education center in Templin into her 80s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dw.com/en/angela-merkels-mother-herlind-kasner-dies-aged-90/a-48281346|title=Angela Merkel's mother, Herlind Kasner, dies aged 90|first=|last=|website=Deutsche Welle|date=10 April 2019|access-date=19 April 2019}}</ref>
===Willi Jentzsch=== {{Main|Willi Jentzsch}} Willi Jentzsch (born 15 May 1886 in [[Wolfen, Germany|Wolfen]], died 23 May 1936 in the Free City of Danzig) was the maternal grandfather of Angela Merkel. He was a teacher, school administrator and politician in the [[Free City of Danzig]], and was elected as one of the eleven Senators of the Free City of Danzig on 27 October 1926, but resigned on 1 November 1927 to become rector of the renowned Gymnasium St. Johann in Fleischergasse. In March 1936, he became school director in Danzig, and thus head of all elementary schools in the city-state.
==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel |collapsed=yes |align=center |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. '''Angela Merkel''' (née ''Kasner''), [[Chancellor of Germany]] |2= 2. [[Horst Kasner]] (né ''Kaźmierczak'') |3= 3. Herlind Jentzsch |4= 4. [[Ludwig Kasner]] (born ''“Ludwik Kaźmierczak”'') |5= 5. Margarethe Pörschke |6= 6. [[Willi Jentzsch]], Senator in the [[Free City of Danzig]] |7= 7. Gertrud Alma Drange |8= 8. (''Possibly'') Ludwik Wojciechowski |9= 9. Anna Kaźmierczak |10= 10. Karl August Pörschke |11= 11. Maria Wilhelmine Thimm |12= 12. Friedrich Wilhelm Jentzsch |13= 13. Wilhelmine Pauline Minna Wilde |14= 14. Emil Drange, [[Clerk (municipal official)|City Clerk]] of [[Elbing]] |15= 15. Emma Pauline Wilhelmine Wachs |16= 16. (''Possibly'') Józef Wojciechowski |17= 15. (''Possibly'') Franziska |18= 18. Bartłomiej Kaźmierczak |19= 19. Apolonia Bielejewicz |20= 20. Karl Poerschke |21= 21. Christina Stanowski |22= |23= |24= 24. Johann Christoph Jentzsch |25= 25. Anna Marie Hanke |26= 26. Friedrich Carl Wilde |27= 27. Caroline Wilhelmine Ehrenberg |28= 28. Carl Gottfried Drange |29= 29. Emilie Juliane Günther |30= 30. Christoph Wachs |31= }}
==Siblings==
===Marcus Kasner=== Marcus Kasner (born 7 July 1957) is the only brother of Angela Merkel and is a [[Theoretical physics|theoretical physicist]].
His early career paralleled that of his sister Angela; like her he studied physics, earned a doctoral degree in physics (Dr.rer.nat.) and worked as a researcher at the [[German Academy of Sciences at Berlin]]. He earned his [[Habilitation]] with the dissertation ''Electronic correlation in the quantum Hall regime'' at the [[Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg]] in 2002.<ref name="encyclopedia">{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first1= Bettina |editor-last1= Bartz | title = Kasner, Marcus | encyclopedia = [[Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender]] | year = 2003 | publisher = K.G. Saur |edition=19 |volume=2 |pages=1554 }}</ref> He has published papers in journals such as ''[[Physical Review Letters]]'', ''[[Physical Review]]'' and ''[[Physica (journal)|Physica]]''. Kasner currently teaches at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the [[Goethe University Frankfurt]] and lives in [[Darmstadt]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/~kasner/|title=Marcus Kasner|first=|last=|publisher=Goethe University Frankfurt}}</ref>
During the [[Fall of Communism]], Marcus Kasner was involved in the opposition movement in [[East Germany]] in the same small circle as his sister as she started her political career. He was a friend of [[Günter Nooke]], the founder of [[Democratic Awakening]], and took part in political discussions on the future of the state.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-67682698.html|title=Die Schläferin |first=|last=|work=Der Spiegel}}</ref> After the [[German reunification]], he was a member of [[Alliance 90/The Greens]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/deutschland-bei-merkels-unterm-sofa_aid_200325.html|title=Bei Merkels unterm Sofa|first=|last=|work=Focus}}</ref>
===Irene Kasner===
Irene Kasner (born 19 August 1964) is the only sister of Angela Merkel and is an [[occupational therapy|occupational therapist]].
==Spouses==
==={{anchor|Ulrich}}Ulrich Merkel=== Ulrich Merkel (born in 1953) was the first husband of Angela Merkel. He met Angela Kasner in 1974 when they were both physics students, and they married in 1977. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982. Angela Merkel kept her first husband's last name.<ref>{{cite web|work=DHM |title=Biographie: Angela Merkel, geb. 1954 |accessdate=2 March 2010 |url=http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/MerkelAngela/index.html |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225210100/http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/MerkelAngela/index.html |archivedate=25 February 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref>
===Joachim Sauer=== {{Main|Joachim Sauer}} Joachim Sauer (born 19 April 1949) is the second husband of Angela Merkel. He is a [[quantum chemistry|quantum chemist]] and full professor at the [[Humboldt University of Berlin]]. He married Angela Merkel on 30 December 1998.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merkel, Angela}} [[Category:Angela Merkel| ]] [[Category:German families]] [[Category:Families by person]]