Chancellor Angela Merkel sacked her Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen, on Wednesday, three days after he led her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to disastrous electoral defeat in Germany's most populous state. Unlike every previous cabinet departure in Merkel's seven-year chancellorship, she made the announcement herself, without Roettgen being present. "I spoke this morning to the federal president and requested him to dismiss Norbert Roettgen from his duties as federal environment minister so as to make possible a fresh start," Merkel told reporters according to dpa.