Quotes from Angela Merkel

Very early, it became clear to me that East Germany could not function.

We abide by our responsibility as Germany for the Shoah.

India needs jobs, Germany needs people, and collaboration is crucial to meet the demographic needs of both countries.

So Europe needs to be competitive and we also need to be competitive if we wish to remain an interesting economic partner for the United States. This has to be done on the basis of strength, of competitiveness.

Greece wishes to be part of the eurozone, but it must, of course, go through with the necessary reforms to make this happen.

Multiculturalism leads to parallel societies and therefore remains a 'life lie.'

I have great respect for press freedoms. At the same time, however, a politician also has the freedom to decide whether he or she will accept an invitation to appear on a show or not.

The problem is, of course, that these interest groups are all asking for changes, but their enthusiasm for change rapidly disappears when it affects the core of their own interests.

Free access to the single market will be granted to a country which accepts the four fundamental freedoms of movement of people, goods, services, and capital.

I think that the EU with the Lisbon agenda has put the right emphasis on growth and employment.

The land of unlimited opportunity was for me, for a long time, impossible to reach. The wall, barbed wire and the order to shoot at those who tried to leave limited my access to the free world.

That makes me think of the 2002 World Cup Final above all else. Nobody thought at the time that our team would get through to the Final against Brazil. We should remember that this summer.

We have shared responsibility for global climate; we have to reduce climate change below 2 degrees Celsius.

Whenever I was able to work with Hillary Clinton, it was a great pleasure.

At the beginning of the 60's our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country. We kidded ourselves a while, we said: 'They won't stay, sometime they will be gone.' But this isn't reality.

We are a country based on democracy, tolerance, and openness to the world.

If I run a time-limited test program, I'll never discover whether markets with additional employment truly exist. A solution in the low-wage sector cannot be a limited special program.

I've learned that even the word 'jubilee' used in connection with the Reformation can give rise to discussions.

The G7 - and earlier, the G8 - were a group of countries that shared the same values with regard to freedom and democracy, and through the annexation of Crimea, Russia made it clear at a certain point that these values of keeping the peace, integrity of the borders of a country were not being respected.

Above all it is important to point out that we can only maintain our prosperity in Europe if we belong to the most innovative regions in the world.

I am for registered civil partnerships.

As politicians we have to react to the fact that many people do not feel that they can relate to the EU.

In Europe it is particularly important that we build good relations to everyone who holds political responsibility because Europe can only be build together.

Personally, I think that for example the chemical directive in its present form does too much damage to the chemical industry - especially the medium sized businesses - and will hurt our worldwide competitiveness.