Family of Angela Merkel

The family of Angela Merkel, the former Chancellor of Germany, is of German and 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.