Angela Merkel and Barack ObamaThe relationship between the leaders of the United States of America and Germany has always been difficult. The countries fought on opposite sides of two world wars, and for much of the late 20th century, Germany was a divided nation. Today the two countries are allies, but the leaders have a large gap to bridge to remain on good terms. In 2014, this falls to Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States of America, and Angela Merkel, the first female chancellor of Germany. Chancellor Merkel was born Angela Kasner on 17 July 1954 in Hamburg. Her parents, Horst, a Lutheran pastor, and Herlind, a teacher, raised Angela and her brother and sister in a small town north of Berlin in the German Democratic Republic, what the rest of the world considered East Germany. This was the communist part of Germany, strongly aligned with the Soviet Union from the end of World War II until 1990. Young Angela grew up in Templin, taking part in the Free German Youth movement. She showed leadership skills when she was just a teenager and became a district council representative and secretary of Agitprop. This was the agitation and propaganda arm of the youth movement. Angela went on to study physics at Leipzig University and received her doctorate in 1978. While there, she married physicist Ulrich Merkel, but they divorced in 1982. She worked as a chemist at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry, Academy of sciences. from 1978 to 1990. When the wall separating Berlin fell, Angela's life took a new course. As enormous changes enveloped her country, Angela Merkel decided she had to be part of it. In 1989 she joined the Demokratischer Aufbruchfirst and quickly accepted the invitation, congratulating Chancellor Merkel on creating a new government at the end of 2013. Merkel is not ready to let bygones be bygones, however. He publicly stated that relations between the United States and Germany were severely strained as Snowden flooded the Internet with NSA documents. President Obama will have to work quickly to strengthen ties with Chancellor Merkel. The change in Ukraine's leadership and Russia's subsequent annexation of Crimea mean that this is not the time for the United States and Germany to be at odds with each other. For her part, Chancellor Merkel has taken a similar position to that of Obama regarding Russia and Crimea. Both agreed on sanctions against Russia. Merkel even called on all European countries to make sure Russia knows they are all united, while at the same time leaving the lines of communication open.