The German parliamentary elections will start on September 26 without the participation of Angela Merkel, who announced her retirement from the political stage after a journey that lasted nearly 30 years.

Angela Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran priest, was named Angela Kashner at her birth in 1954 in Hamburg, West Germany, and moved to the eastern part of the country six weeks after her birth.

The first female chancellor in German history admitted that she worked while studying physics as a waitress in a bar.

Merkel obtained her doctorate in East Berlin in 1986, and did not enter politics until after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, initially helping to connect computers in the office of a new Democratic party and later joining the Christian Democratic Union two months before German unification.

Thus began her political ascent, from spokeswoman for the last East German government in 1990 to leader of the conservative party in 2000 to chancellorship in November 2005.

Merkel's departure opens a new political era in Germany. This is the first time since 1949 that the chancellor has not run for elections.