TIME: 2015 Person of the Year

TIME’s 2015 Person of the Year Is Angela Merkel

The German chancellor, whose leadership has helped preserve and promote an open, borderless Europe in the face of economic turmoil and an ongoing refugee crisis,

is TIME’s 2015 Person of the Year

…At a moment when much of the world is once more engaged in a furious debate about the balance between safety and freedom, the

Chancellor is asking a great deal of the German people, and by their example, the rest of us as well. To be welcoming. To be unafraid. To believe that great civilizations build bridges, not walls, and that wars are won both on and off the battlefield. By viewing the refugees as

victims to be rescued rather than invaders to be repelled, the woman raised behind the Iron Curtain gambled on freedom.

The pastor’s daughter wielded mercy like a weapon. You can agree with her or not, but she is not taking the easy road.

Leaders are tested only when people don’t want to follow. For asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing

firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply,

Angela Merkel is TIME’s Person of the Year.

10 Photos That Show Why Angela Merkel Is the World’s Most Powerful Woman

ORBAN/REA/ReduxJanuary: From left: French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas link arms during a silent march against terrorism in Paris on Jan. 11, 2015 following the attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.

Sergei Ilnitsky/ReutersMay: Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures as Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during a news conference after peace talks about east Ukraine at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 10, 2015.

Getty ImagesMay: Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron listen to their nations' national anthems upon Cameron's arrival at the Chancellery on May 29, 2015 in Berlin. Cameron was in Berlin as part of his tour of European Union member states capitals in order to persuade leaders on the necessity of E.U. reforms.

Michael Kappeler—ReutersJune: From left: U.S. President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Francois Hollande attend a working dinner at the G7 summit at the castle Elmau in Kruen, Germany on June 7, 2015. Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations met in the Bavarian Alps for a summit overshadowed by Greece's debt crisis and ongoing violence in Ukraine.

Michael Kappeler—ReutersJune: Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with U.S. President Barack Obama outside the Elmau castle in Kruen near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on June 8, 2015 during the G7 summit.

Getty ImagesJune: Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes Queen Elizabeth II upon her arrival at the Federal Chancellery during the royal couple's four-day visit to Germany on June 24, 2015 in Berlin. The Queen and Prince Philip visited Berlin, Frankfurt and the concentration camp memorial at Bergen-Belsen during their first to Germany since 2004.

Bundesregierung/laif/ReduxOctober: Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron talk at the beginning of their meeting at the country residence of the prime minister at Chequers in Buckinghamshire, England on Oct. 9, 2015.

Eric Vidal—ReutersOctober: Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to a meeting over the Balkan refugee crisis with leaders from central and eastern Europe at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on Oct. 25, 2015.

Guido Bergmann—Bundesregierung/Getty ImagesOctober: Chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk at the Federal Chancellery on Oct. 21, 2015 in Berlin.

Jason Lee—ReutersOctober: China's Premier Li Keqiang and Chancellor Angela Merkel inspect honor guards during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 29, 2015.

More Person Of The Year

The Short List

ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI

DONALD TRUMP

BLACK LIVES MATTER

HASSAN ROUHANI

TRAVIS KALANICK

CAITLYN JENNER

Women Named Time's Person Of The Year

1936: Wallis Simpson

1937: Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling

1952: Queen Elizabeth II

1966: Men and Women 25 and Under

1969: The Middle Americans

1975: American Women

1986: Corazon Aquino

2002: The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins

2005: The Good Samaritans: Bill Gates, Bono, Melinda Gates

2006: You

2011: The Protester

2014: The Ebola Fighters (left: Salome Karwah; right: Ella Watson-Stryker)

cast TIME: 2015 Person of the Year

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