She could have been doing an impression of a head girl speaking to her school on the first day of term: a slightly shy and inexperienced one, unsure of what to do with herself as she was heartily applauded.

Angela Merkel might be the most powerful woman in Europe, known invariably as the iron lady or Germany's "Mutti" (mum), but she fought back the tears on Tuesday, visibly struggling to swallow a lump in her throat as members of her Christian Democrats re-elected her as their leader for the seventh time, with a record vote approaching 98%.

Only her towering predecessors Helmut Kohl and Konrad Adenauer have earned better results.

A standing ovation which lasted for eight minutes – another record, and a whole two minutes longer than last year's, according to party conference observers – saw a somewhat embarrassed German chancellor, who yo-yoed between her seat and the stage, calling for reinforcements.

Lower Saxony's prime minister, David McAllister, a half-Scot who is often tipped as her successor – was beckoned on to the stage.

The euphoric McAllister, sometimes referred to as Merkel's lapdog, threw an arm around her shoulder. But you do not have to have observed Merkel all that closely to know she does not warm to such gestures. He soon felt the awkwardness and left her standing alone once again.

Commentators referred to the symbolism of the standalone leader: "Never before has a CDU party conference been so tailored solely to Merkel," said Michael König in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

And as she launched the CDU's election campaign at its annual party conference in Hanover, it was clear that for the CDU at least, September 2013's vote will depend on a single personality. "Merkel is the CDU, the CDU is Merkel," said König.

For a political system like Germany's that usually has little time for the US-style politics of personality, it is something of a radical shift, reflected in the CDU's campaign slogan: "It all comes down to the chancellor."

With the wolf-whistles of some of the party faithful ringing in her ears, Merkel told the CDU she was "gobsmacked and moved" by the result, while in the very same breath urging them to "get to work", stressing there was "much to do".

Earlier, in a 60-minute speech which was likened to a state-of-the-nation address, Merkel, dressed in a black variant of her one-style-in-many-colours trouser suit complete with trademark brown-suede collar, praised her own government for being "the most successful since German unification in 1990", pointing out that Germany currently had the lowest unemployment rate and the highest employment rate for more than 20 years, and that the country was the motor of Europe.

It was a speech that might well have stuck in the gullet of any Greeks or Spaniards who happened to be watching.

As she has successfully done many times before, she turned the subject of the euro crisis, her approach to which has earned her the sharpest criticism outside Germany but hardly anything other than encouraging accolades at home, into an opportunity to portray herself as the solid captain at the helm of the ship.

"These are turbulent times and sometimes we … find ourselves in difficult, stormy seas," she said, adding that as the head of the CDU, she would lead the country "to safety with a clear course" and would also ensure that the country's export "Made in Germany" success story continued to flourish.

She added that the single most "herculean task of our times", at a time of increasing competition from Asia and India, was to defend German values.