Angela Merkel is Time's 'Person of the Year'

Time Magazine announced on Wednesday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was its "Person of the Year."

The US publication, which every year recognizes an influential person, group or idea for an exclusive year-end issue, debuted the cover on its Twitter feed.

In an essay on its website, Managing Editor Nancy Gibbs celebrated Merkel's steady, guided leadership during this year's succession of emergencies on the European continent: the possibility of Greek bankruptcy, Russian aggression in the Ukraine, the refugee crisis and, finally, the terrorist attacks in Paris.

"At a moment when much of the world is once more engaged in a furious debate about the balance between safety and freedom," Gibbs wrote, "the Chancellor is asking a great deal of the German people, and by their example, the rest of us as well."

In the end, Gibbs wrote, the magazine chose Merkel for "asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in the world where it is in short supply."

Merkel is only the fourth woman to be featured alone on the cover of Time's special issue. The tradition began in 1927.

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