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Take a look at these meetings of world leaders from the past ten years and you’ll likely notice one figure.
看看过去十年里世界领导人召开的这些会议，你可能会注意到一个人。
This is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the most influential leaders of Europe.
她就是德国总理安格拉·默克尔，欧洲影响力最大的领导人之一。
Her leadership spans 13 years and four terms.
她的任期长达13年，连任了4次总理。
In that span, she became one of the most powerful women in the world.
在这段时间里，她成了世界上权力最大的女性之一。
But she recently stepped down as leader of her party and she won’t be running for re-election.
然而，她最近辞去了基民党领袖的职务，也不会再竞选连任了。
By 2021, not only will Germany lose one of its longest-serving leaders — so will Europe.
到2021年，不仅德国，欧洲也将失去其任期最长的领导人之一。
Merkel has dominated European politics for decades.
默克尔几十年来一直主导着欧洲政治。
So how did Angela Merkel become so powerful and what does her exit mean for Europe?
那么，安格拉·默克尔是如何变得如此强大的？她的离任对欧洲又意味着什么?
The Berlin Wall divided Germany’s capital in half for almost 3 decades.
柏林墙将德国首都一分为二了近30年。
This side was part of the prosperous and democratic West Germany.
一边是繁荣民主的西德。
And the other side was the impoverished communist East Germany, a satellite state of the Soviet Union.
一边是贫穷的共产主义东德，苏联的卫星国。
But when the Wall fell in 1989, the East unified with the West.
然而，1989年柏林墙倒塌后，东德与西德再次统一。
And Germany quickly became one of the largest and most populous countries in Europe.
德国很快成为了欧洲面积最大，人口最多的国家之一。
This is when Angela Merkel entered politics.
也就是在这时，安格拉·默克尔登上了政治舞台。
She was elected to be a member of the new parliament in 1990, but rapidly rose through the ranks.
1990年她才选上新一届议会的成员，之后一路亨通。
By ‘94 she was Minister of the Environment.
到94年，她已经当上了环境部长。
And by 2000 she was head of her political party, the CDU.
到2000年，她又当上了她所在的基民盟主席。
While Merkel became more important in Germany, reunited Germany became more important in Europe.
默克尔在德国日显重要，统一后的德国在欧洲也日显重要：
It became a leader in the European Union.
德国成了整个欧盟的领头羊。
There were open borders between EU member countries, to let people and trade pass through freely.
欧盟成员国彼此开放边境，允许人员和贸易自由往来。
And Germany led the effort to create the “Eurozone” where 11 EU countries adopted the Euro as a common currency in 1999.
德国还带头创建了“欧元区”，1999年，11个会员国采纳欧元作为通用货币。
These policies made EU countries more dependent on each other.
这些政策使得欧盟各国更加依赖彼此。
And in the early 2000s, the EU increasingly looked to Germany, one of its most powerful economies, to be its leader.
在21世纪初，欧盟越来越器重经济位列最为强大的成员国之列的德国这位领袖。
Starting in 2005, that leadership came from Angela Merkel.
从2005年开始，安格拉·默克尔开始发挥这一领袖作用。
Merkel was elected Germany’s Chancellor and demonstrated a talent for building consensus.
因为就在那一年，默克尔当上了德国总理，展现出了凝聚共识的非凡才能。
She engineered a “grand coalition” between Germany’s biggest political parties from the right and the left.
她在德国最大的左右两党之间策划了一个“大联盟”。
With this alliance behind her, Merkel solved two of Germany’s biggest economic problems.
有了这个联盟的支持，默克尔解决了德国最大的两个经济问题：
She cut huge government spending and reduced unemployment.
削减了巨额的政府开支；降低了失业率。
Her ability to stabilize Germany's economy became particularly important when the EU faced a crisis.
欧盟集体陷入危机时，默克尔稳定德国经济的能力就显得尤为重要。
"This Eurozone crisis has gone from bad to worse."
“欧元区的危机已经愈演愈烈。”
"It is a high stakes game where the players are world leaders and the wager is the world’s economy."
“这是一场高风险的游戏，一场世界领导人赌上了世界经济的游戏。”
The global economic recession in 2008 hit Greece especially hard.
08年的世界经济萧条对希腊的打击尤其严重。
The country inched towards bankruptcy and its economic decline brought down the value of the Euro, which hurt everyone in the Eurozone.
不仅这个国家一步步走向破产，其经济下滑还造成了欧元的贬值，伤害到了欧元区的每一个人。
But Merkel’s Germany was weathering the recession better than anyone in Europe.
但默克尔领导下的德国比其他任何欧洲国家都更好地抵御了这次经济衰退。
So it fell on Merkel to rescue Greece with her economic strategy:
用自己的经济战略拯救希腊的重任由此落在了默克尔的肩上：
She demanded Greece pass huge spending cuts in exchange for loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
她要求希腊通过大幅削减开支，以换取欧盟和国际货币基金组织的贷款。
These were deeply unpopular across Europe.
整个欧洲对她的这些举措都颇为不满。
Cutting Greece’s pensions and services were harsh tactics.
削减希腊的养老金和服务这些策略是很严厉。
But Merkel’s priority was to retain the integrity of the Eurozone and Greece’s debt threatened that union:
但默克尔的首要任务是维护欧元区的完整性，而希腊的债务威胁着这个联盟：
Merkel eventually got the 16 Eurozone countries to support her plan and kept the Eurozone together,
最终，默克尔争取到了16个欧元区国家的支持，守住了欧元区，
cementing her role as the unparalleled but controversial leader of Europe.
也巩固了她作为欧洲举世无双也不乏争议的领导人一角。
