Angola Merkel, Germany's no-nonsense chancellor, is stepping down after 16 years.

Thank you. And I think let's start.

With a German elections, just 10 days away, a big change is coming, and not just for Germany.

That's why I want to leave this wish with you.

Tear down worlds of ignorance and narrow mindedness for nothing has to stay as it is.

From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Postreports.

I'm Alexis Dio, it's Thursday, September 16th.

Angola Merkel is Germany's first female chancellor, and one of the country's longest serving leaders.

People see her as this force of stability. Some even call her the leader of the free world, though I have learned she doesn't like that.

So as Merkel prepares to leave office, we wanted to look closer at her life, and the complicated legacy that she's leaving behind.

Angola Merkel has had an incredible 16 years in power. Young Germans basically don't remember anyone else being chancellor.

That's Love Day Morris, Berlin bureau chief for the Washington Post.

She has been called the world's most powerful woman. This Joan of Arc figure, Obama's called her one of the most important world leaders.

As I reflect back over the last eight years, I could not ask for a steadier or more reliable partner on the world stage, often through some very challenging times.

So I want to thank you for your friendship, for your leadership and your commitment to our alliance, and I want to thank the German people.

Especially when we've seen the rise of the populists, and when we saw Donald Trump in the US and Victor Orban in charge in Hungary, whether it seemed to be a slide towards autocracy, Merkel was seen as this bastion of liberal democracy.

But then she has this quite mixed legacy really in Germany. I mean, she isn't a liberal, she's a conservative. Her critics would say that despite being a woman, she hasn't done as much as she could have done for women in Germany.

She only very recently came out and called herself a feminist.

For me, it's an attitude. And in this sense, today I can affirmatively say, I am a feminist. Back then, I was a bit shy when I said that on stage. Today, it's better thought out.

Today, it's better thought out.

That was something that she'd always shied away for, even though she'd been held up as a feminist icon, and she does leave behind a very contradictory legacy in some ways.

You know, love day when I think of Angela Merkel, I think German Chancellor, arguably the most powerful woman in the world. But I want to take a step back and kind of understand how she became the icon that she is.

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