She was a Conservative.
No....she was an Ossi!
For us Ossis the west Parties like CDU, FDP or SPD and later the Greens meant not the same....not the same historical bonding, the same politicial understanding. After the wall fell it was like a Bazaar.....and people chose for many reasons....Merkel was as much CDU as I would be a Green....it was a way for her to make a career....and because she was seen as catholic....but that all had not the same meaning or importance like in the West....hence the new eastern party PDS later....
Merkel made politics after the polls and only as far as she could see the horizon, she didn't care for anything and anybody, no principles, nothing....and at that times the Greens were up and rising....and that thinking took hold and gained support....and it was so easy....Nord Stream 2 was being build, nobody thought Putin would become a warmonger...so....make ourselves a slave of some other country, why the hell not? If it gains me the next chancellorship too...*shrugs*
PS: CDU, SPD, FDP and also the Greens are still seen as purely western parties, with barely any members in the East at all...curiously the AfD is seen as more of an eastern party, even as she was founded in the West too...the only truly eastern Party, the Linke (former PDS) is probably actually dying out, it's members are getting to old!