Frau Chancellor

Berlin

Angela Merkel was sworn in as German chancellor this week, becoming the first woman and the first person from the former communist East to hold that office. Announcing the results of the parliamentary vote making her chancellor, parliament speaker Norbert Lammert said, “This is a strong signal for many women—and certainly for some men, too.” Merkel’s election has launched a flurry of replacements of official signage. In German, Kanzler, the word for chancellor, becomes Kanzlerin if the officeholder is a woman. That means the names of many government offices and Web site addresses must be changed.

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