Little Rose

9

Ursula in a jeans suit seeing off Germany's first relief flight to Iran
in support of the people suffering the IS invasion (©AP)

When I saw the photo above in yesterday's press, I decided to write a blog about Röschen (little rose), not to be confused with Goethe's Röslein, that Little Rose on the Heath. Röschen is the nickname of our Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen. 

She measures only 161 cm (5' 3'') ist klein aber oho (is small, but what a performance)! Ursula is the daughter of Ernst Albrecht, former governor of the state of Lower Saxony. She was raised in a family of seven siblings in Brussels and Lehrte near Hannover, and she decided not to opt for less. She is a mother of seven children too. 

From the grandstand in the Bundestag (House of Parliament):
Seven children and a husband observing Ursula taking the oath of office as Minister of Defense (©dpa)

She became a medical doctor and spent four years at Stanford University, where her husband, a physician too, was a faculty member from 1992 to 1996. No wonder she speaks English and French fluently in addition to German.

She only joined the Christian Democrats (CDU) in 1990 and, in 2003, became Minister of Social Affairs, Women, Family, and Health in the state of Lower Saxony.

In 2005 Chancellor Angela Merkel made Ursula Federal Minister of Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth. Elected into the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) in 2009, she became Labour and Social Affairs Minister. Following Ursula's re-election in 2013, Merkel made her Minister of Defense. What a career!

Ursula on a visit to the German ISAF troops in Afghanistan.
Feeling well among her boys and sometimes girls (©Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

When Ursula took over her new function, many a soldier feared that he/she had to style his/her hair as the boss, vokuhila (vorne kurz, hinten lang = short in front, long in the back). In the meantime, she did a good job. Today rumors have it that some soldiers even pinned up Ursula's photo.

©Found on Twitter

Is she interested in becoming Angela's successor? Here is a quick comparison:

	Angela Merkel	Ursula von der Leyen
Age	60	54
Religion	Protestant	Catholic
Education	Doctor in Physics	Doctor in Medicine
Family Status	Divorced and remarried	Married
Husband	Professor of Physics	Professor of Medicine
Children	0	7
Languages	German, Russian, English	German, French, English

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