Former Chancellor Angela Merkel is to be decorated with Germany's highest possible honor on Monday in recognition of her near-record 16 years at the helm of the country.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier plans to bestow the Order of Merit for special achievement on the four-term chancellor, who will become only the third ex-leader to receive that level of distinction. The other two were Konrad Adenauer, West Germany's first leader, and Helmut Kohl, who led Germany to reunification.
Merkel, 68, was the first woman to lead Germany and the first chancellor who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in communist East Germany.
