Edward Snowden has become one of most admired men in Germany – poll

Edward Snowden is the fourth most admired man among Germans, according to a new YouGov poll. The NSA whistleblower, whose leaks exposed US spying on German officials - including Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, came in just ahead of racecar driver Michael Schumacher, Sputnik News reported.

A mix of politicians, public intellectuals and movie stars top the annual YouGov polls of the world’s most admired people, which are compiled globally and also broken down by various countries.

Snowden, who came after former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, the Dalai Lama and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, has received positive recognition in Germany for his revelations about NSA surveillance. He also placed sixth among Russians and eighth among Danes.

Snowden was given the 2013 Whistleblower Award as well as the 2014 Fritz Bauer Prize, awarded by the German Humanist Union, a prominent civil rights organization. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who worked with Snowden to publish much of his information, also received the Scholl Siblings Prize in 2014 for his book on the leaks. And both of them, along with filmmaker Laura Poitras, received the 2014 Carl von Ossietzky Medal from the International League for Human Rights.

Among the most admired women for Germans, current chancellor Angela Merkel came out on top. Nobel prize winning equality activist Malala Yousafzai — who appeared at or near the top of many lists — was second. German singer Helene Fischer, Queen Elizabeth II and Angelina Jolie, who topped lists in four different countries, rounded out the German top 5.

Globally, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Jolie — who has recently worked as Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees — topped the rankings.

US President Barack Obama — who topped the US list — held the second slot globally — in parallel with former US Secretary of State, and object of endless 2016 presidential speculation, Hillary Clinton on the women’s list.

Along with heads of state, and entertainers, faith leaders — notably the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis I — were also common top-ranked choices.