What does Angela Merkel leave behind?

BERLIN — Angela Merkel, that most pragmatic of world leaders, is perhaps the last person one would associate with things mystical. But the German chancellor, now in the waning days of a titanic 16 years in power, veered away from her trademark empiricism two years ago when she spoke to an American graduating class.

“’In all beginnings dwells a magic force,’” Merkel told a Harvard commencement, quoting the German- Swiss poet Hermann Hesse.

Merkel’s own beginnings were so unassuming that they lend almost fairy- tale overtones to her rise as an obscure scientist who emerged from behind the fallen Berlin Wall to become not just Germany’s first female chancellor, but also one of the world’s most famous women, and one of its most influential and widely admired politicians.

Many now worry what lies ahead without the leader often seen as the glue holding the European Union together. “The European project has always had its fault lines, but they have rarely caused earthquakes,” Ana Palacio, a former foreign minister of Spain, wrote last month on the global af fairs website Project Syndicate, musing about potential ruptures within the bloc over defense, economy and foreign policy.

In a post- Merkel era, she wrote, “is the EU in for a tremor — or worse?”

For younger Germans, Merkel has been the only head of government in memory. That fact — a confident woman comfortable at the heart of power — will probably prove a lasting legacy. Her matter- offact mien, unfussy personal style and calmly rational discourse sometimes lent themselves to satire, but Merkel in many ways embodied the self-image Germans aspired to: unadorned, smart, purposeful.

Merkel’s landmark tenure saw her hailed for a time as the chief custodian of the liberal Western democratic order — leader of the free world, some went so far as to say — especially after Donald Trump captured the Oval Office. At the head of Europe’s most powerful economy, her leadership was crucial in guiding the continent through the 2008 financial crash and an unprecedented crush of migration in 2015.

But she leaves a distinctly mixed legacy at home, including a checkered environmental record, an over- reliance on China as a trade partner and a failure to implement badly needed economic and technological reforms.

At 67, Merkel is the first postwar German leader to voluntarily step aside, rather than being voted out of office like her eight male predecessors. But the immense popularity she long enjoyed may not save her center-right party from stinging defeat in Sunday’s election.

“For her legacy, the overall picture should be considered,” said Kornelius, the biographer and editor. “Germany has gone through some really serious crises, and the overall view is that she has done a good job. She’ll be remembered for 16 years of stability and predictability.”

Germany has gone through some really serious crises, and the overall view is that she has done a good job. She’ll be remembered for 16 years of stability and predictability.