Merkel to receive highest German honor.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit for special achievement, Germany's highest possible honor, in recognition of her 16-year tenure as the country's leader. Merkel, the first woman to lead Germany and the first chancellor who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in communist East Germany, stepped down in December 2021 with a well-regarded record of leading Europe's biggest economy through a series of crises.