Angela Merkel Named Harvard Commencement Speaker

The German chancellor will deliver the Commencement address on May 30, 2019.

Angela MerkelPhotograph by 360b/Alamy Stock Photo

In a surprise early announcement, Harvard has named Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany since 2005, its speaker for the 368th Commencement ceremonies, taking place on May 30, 2019. “Angela Merkel is one of the most widely admired and broadly influential statespeople of our time,” said Harvard president Lawrence S. Bacow. “Over her four terms as Germany’s chancellor, her leadership has done much to shape the course not only of her nation, but also of Europe and the larger world. She continues to play a central role in confronting some of the great challenges of our era, and I very much look forward to welcoming her to Harvard next May and to hearing what is sure to be a memorable address.”

Merkel has been called the de facto leader of the European Union. She entered politics after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and became a protégée of the late Helmut Kohl, LL.D. ’90, who served as chancellor from 1982 to 1998. She has led the Christian Democratic Union party since 2000, a role from which she is stepping down, and she recently announced that she will not seek reelection to the chancellorship when her term ends in 2021.

Read the University announcement here.

Read more articles by: Jonathan Shaw

You might also like

Harvard College Admits Class of 2028

A smaller undergraduate applicant cohort—the first since Supreme Court ended affirmative action 

Studying ChatGPT Like a Psychologist

Cognitive science helps penetrate the AI “black box”

Reparations as Public Health

A Harvard forum on the racial health gap

Most popular

Harvard College Admits Class of 2028

A smaller undergraduate applicant cohort—the first since Supreme Court ended affirmative action 

Diagnosis by Fiction

The “Healing Quartet,” by “Samuel Shem,” probes medicine—and life.

AWOL from Academics

Behind students' increasing pull toward extracurriculars

More to explore

Darker Days

The current disquiets compared to Harvard’s Vietnam-era traumas

Making Space

The natural history of Junko Yamamoto’s art and architecture

Spellbound on Stage

Actor and young adult novelist Aislinn Brophy