Ten people (nine men and one woman) have served as chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the first beingKonrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963. (Another 26 men had served as "Reich chancellors" of the previous German Empire from 1871 to 1945.) The current officeholder isFriedrich Merz of theChristian Democratic Union, sworn in on 6 May 2025.
The modern office of chancellor was established with the beginning of theNorth German Confederation in1867, after thePrussian Army'sdecisive victory in the briefAustro-Prussian War of 1866 over the rivalAustrian Empire. Unlike its predecessor the German Confederation, the North German Confederation did have an office ofBundeskanzler (federal Chancellor), which was given to the Minister-President of PrussiaOtto von Bismarck. In 1871 the North German Confederationtransformed into theGerman Empire, with the federal chancellor becomingReichskanzler (imperial chancellor). The office ofReichskanzler continued during theWeimar Republic (1918-1933).[5]
InNazi Germany the office ofReichskanzler was never formally abolished, but instead combined with the office ofReichspräsident. On August 1, the day before ReichspräsidentPaul von Hindenburg's death, theHitler cabinet passed a law merging the offices of Reich Chancellor and Reich President in the person of Hitler. This law came into force upon Hindenburg's death.[6]
Thereunification of Germany (3 October 1990) continued the Basic Law of the Federal Republic for the reunited German state, including the office of chancellor.
The role of chancellor has varied during different eras. From 1867 to 1918, the chancellor was the only responsible minister at the federal level. He was appointed by theBundespräsidium, (i.e. the King of Prussia; the Emperor of Germany from 1871). The state secretaries (Staatssekretäre) were civil servants subordinate to the chancellor and similar to ministers. Besides his executive duties, the constitution gave the chancellor only one function: presiding over theBundesrat (Federal Council), the representative organ of the various German states. The chancellor was also nearly alwaysMinister President of Prussia, which was the largest and dominant state in the Empire. Indirectly, this gave him the power of the Bundesrat, including to dissolve the parliament and call for elections.
Followingthe defeat a new post-war democratic Republican government was set up by the popularly electedWeimar National Assembly, which met inWeimar (Thuringia in 1919/20. According to theWeimar constitution, the chancellor was head of a collegial democratic government. The chancellor was appointed by the newpresident of Germany (Reich President), as were the subordinate ministers of various portfolios (departments / agencies) on the chancellor's recommendation. The chancellor or any minister had to be dismissed ifReichstag demanded it. As today,[9] the chancellor had theprerogative to determine the policy direction of his government. In reality this power was limited by the needs of coalition governments of the several major political parties (and numerous smaller minor ones) plus the powers of the Reich President. Cabinet decisions were taken by majority vote. Under the circumstances, much like hisFrench counterpart, the Weimar-era chancellor was as much the chairman of the cabinet as he was its leader.
On 30 January 1933 (seizure of power day),Adolf Hitler of theNazi Party, the biggest party in parliament, was appointed chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg. Subsequently, the 1919 Weimar Constitution wasde facto set aside. After Hindenburg's death on 2 August 1934, Hitler arrogated to himself the powers of the president. He chose the official titleFührer und Reichskanzler (meaning "Leader and Chancellor of the Reich").
The1949 constitution gave the chancellor greater powers than during the Weimar Republic of the 1920s and early 1930s, while strongly diminishing the role of thepresident of Germany. Germany has often been referred to as a "chancellor democracy", reflecting the role of the chancellor as Germany's chief executive.
TheNorth German Confederation was created on 1 July1867. According to the constitution of this federal state, the king of Prussia served asBundespräsidium (in fact a head of state) and appointed aBundeskanzler. This chancellor was the only member of the executive, the only responsible minister. Legislation was the task of two organs:
theBundesrat, the federal council, as the representative organ of the German states that had joined the federal state;
theReichstag, the federal parliament, representing the voters (male suffrage).
A law could only pass with the consent of both organs. The federal council was not considered to be a parliament or parliament chamber, as its members were not elected for a fixed period of time, but appointed representatives of the states' governments. Though, the two organs can also be described asupper house andlower house since they shared the task of legislation.
After the south German states had joined the federal state in1870/71, during thewar against France, the North German Confederation transformed into theDeutsches Reich orGerman Empire. At this occasion, the termBundeskanzler was recoined asReichskanzler, and theking of Prussia was given the title of emperor additionally. The political system remained largely the same.
Otto von Bismarck was (from 1862) Prime Minister of Prussia, the largest state in the Confederation. He retained this office and used it to set up the new federal state; he was not interested in a fully developed federal executive with cabinet ministers acting independently. But Bismarck also had another reason to remain Prime Minister of Prussia.[10]
According to the constitution, the chancellor was only a federal minister and presided over the Bundesrat. As chancellor, his powers were limited because he could not introduce bills, speak in parliament or dismiss parliament (which the Prussian government could do in Prussia, for example). As chairman of the Bundesrat, he had no voting rights.
It therefore made sense for Bismarck to hold both offices, at federal and state level:
In Prussia, he was appointed Prussian foreign minister and Prussian minister president at the same time (the minister president was always one of the cabinet ministers responsible for a ministry).
As the most powerful politician in Prussia, he had a decisive influence on Prussian votes in the Bundesrat.
Prussia had 17 votes in the Bundesrat. Although this was not the majority, it was the largest vote of any single state. The Prussian vote usually became the basis for a majority in the Bundesrat, as Prussia only needed a few of the other states to join its position.
Through this bundling of offices, chancellor Bismarck used the power of the federal council to govern. As a member of the federal council, he had speaking rights in the parliament. He de facto introduced draft bills into the legislative process. Thanks to the federal council he could, with the approval of the emperor, dismiss parliament and call for new elections. Likewise, most of Bismarck's successors were chancellor and prime minister at the same time, although the constitution never asked for this combination.[11]
In 1878, a new law(Stellvertretungsgesetz) installed the office ofStaatssekretär. The chancellor was given the opportunity to formally install state secretaries to represent him and sign for him(contraseign). The chancellor, though, could overrule any of them any time. The office of State Secretary did not formally evolve into a cabinet minister. In practice, however, state secretaries acted in a similar way to ministers in other countries.
The office of chancellor (Reichskanzler) was continued in the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Constitution provided for a two-part executive consisting of a Reich president and a government made up of Reich ministers and a Reich chancellor (Article 52)[12] who determined the guidelines of the government's policy (Article 56).[12]
The constitution stipulated that the president appoint and dismiss the chancellor and ministers. The ministers were appointed by the president on the recommendation of the chancellor (Article 53),[12] and members of the government required the confidence of theReichstag (Article 54).[12] The provisions gave rise to the question of who in fact was responsible for forming the government.
Constitutional law expertErnst Rudolf Huber said that the constitution had tacitly assumed that the president would have discussions with party leaders in the Reichstag before he made ministerial appointments. Based on these talks, the president would get a sense of which potential chancellor would be able to build a stable majority in the Reichstag. According to the sense of the Weimar Constitution, the president was thus to have the initiative.[13] The task of putting together the Reich government was nevertheless the responsibility of the chancellor. The president could not appoint anyone as minister whom the chancellor had not proposed.
The chancellor alone had to answer to the Reichstag and the president for the policy guidelines, and he determined whether the conduct of business by the individual Reich ministries conformed to the guidelines. The government's decisions required a majority vote of the ministers, who sitting together were known as the National Ministry (Article 58).[12] The chancellor could therefore be outvoted, as could a department minister. The chancellor presided over the government, and he had to conduct business in accordance with given rules of procedure.[14][15]
In practice the Reich chancellor's power to determine political guidelines was limited by his own party as well as the other parties in the governing coalition. The Weimar chancellors were accordingly men whose strength lay in mediation rather than political initiative.[16] Constitutionally, there was also the fact that the president had certain special rights. The actions of the president required the countersignature of the chancellor or the minister or ministers concerned, but the president always had to be informed about matters of foreign and defence policy.
The Reichstag could call for the dismissal of any member of the government, including the chancellor. Under Articles 54 and 59,[12] the Reichstag could also impeach the chancellor as well as the ministers and the president before theState Court for the German Reich (Staatsgerichtshof für das Deutsche Reich), the Weimar Republic's constitutional court.
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 byPaul von Hindenburg. On taking office, Hitler immediately began accumulating power and changing the nature of the chancellorship. After only two months in office, and following theburning of theReichstag building, the parliament passed theEnabling Act giving the chancellor full legislative powers for a period of four years – the cabinet could introduce any law without consent of parliament.
Technically, however, Hindenburg was able to dismiss the chancellor. On August 1, 1934, when Hindenburg was already ill and expected to die in the near future, Hitler used the Enabling Act to pass a new law, which came into force one day later. This law on the head of state stated that the offices of Reich chancellor and Reich president would "merge" and that the powers of the Reich president would be transferred to the "Leader and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler". This can be interpreted as the abolition of the office of president; a president had to be elected every seven years, which was not in Hitler's interests. Hindenburg actually died on August 2, 1934.
In April 1945, Hitlergave instruction that upon his death, the office of theFührer would dissolve and be replaced by the previous system of administration: that of the office of the president separate from that of chancellor. On 30 April 1945, when Hitler committed suicide, he was briefly succeeded as Chancellor byJoseph Goebbels and as President of Germany by Grand AdmiralKarl Dönitz. When Goebbels also committed suicide, Dönitz did not appoint a successor as Chancellor, instead appointingCount Schwerin von Krosigk as head of government with the title "Leading Minister".
Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present)
The 1949 German constitution, theBasic Law (Grundgesetz), invests the chancellor (German,Bundeskanzler) with broad powers to initiate government policy. For that reason, some observers refer to the German political system as a "chancellor democracy". Even though the office of chancellor is often considered the most powerful in the German political system and is seen as such within the German public, it is only the thirdhighest office, following the head of state (thepresident of Germany) and thepresident of the Bundestag, a position similar to the speaker of the federal parliament.
Whichever major party (historically,CDU/CSU orSPD) does not hold the chancellorship usually calls its leading candidate for the federal election "chancellor-candidate" (Kanzlerkandidat). The federal government (Bundesregierung) consists of the chancellor and cabinet ministers.
The cabinet bench in theReichstag building (to the left of the flag) with the raised seat of the chancellor in the front row
The chancellor's authority emanates from the provisions of the Basic Law and in practice from their status as leader of the party (or coalition of parties) holding a majority of seats in theBundestag (federal parliament). With the exception ofHelmut Schmidt andOlaf Scholz, the chancellor has also been chairman of their own party. This was the case with ChancellorGerhard Schröder from 1999 until he resigned the chairmanship of the SPD in 2004.
The first chancellor,Konrad Adenauer, set many precedents that continue today and established the chancellorship as the clear focus of power in Germany. Under the provisions of the Basic Law giving him the power to set guidelines for all fields of policy, Adenauer arrogated nearly all major decisions to himself. He often treated his ministers as mere extensions of his authority rather than colleagues. While his successors have tended to be less domineering, the chancellor has acquired enoughex officio authority (in addition to their constitutional powers) that Germany is often described by constitutional law experts as a "chancellor democracy".
The chancellor determines the composition of theFederal Cabinet. The president formally appoints and dismisses cabinet ministers, on the recommendation of the chancellor; no parliamentary approval is needed. According to the Basic Law, the chancellor may set the number of cabinet ministers and dictate their specific duties. ChancellorLudwig Erhard had the largest cabinet, with 22 ministers, in the mid-1960s.Helmut Kohl presided over 17 ministers at the start of his fourth term in 1994; the 2002 cabinet, the second of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, had 13 ministers, and theAngela Merkel cabinet as of 22 November 2005 had 15.
Article 65 of the Basic Law sets forth three principles that define how the executive branch functions:
The "chancellor principle" makes the chancellor responsible for all government policies; this is also known as theRichtlinienkompetenz (roughly translated as "guideline setting competence"). Any formal policy guidelines issued by the chancellor are legally binding directives that cabinet ministers must implement. Cabinet ministers are expected to introduce specific policies at the ministerial level that reflect the chancellor's broader guidelines.
The "principle of ministerial autonomy" entrusts each minister with the freedom to supervise departmental operations and prepare legislative proposals without cabinet interference so long as the minister's policies are consistent with the chancellor's broader guidelines.
The "cabinet principle" calls for disagreements between federal ministers over jurisdictional or budgetary matters to be settled by the cabinet.
The chancellor is elected by the Bundestag and formally appointed by the president of Germany. This can be done by means of a regular election of the chancellor or by a constructive vote of no confidence. A regularchancellor's election is necessary whenever the office of chancellor has fallen vacant. This is the case if a newly elected Bundestag meets for the first time, or during legislative periods, if the former chancellor died or resigned.
The chancellor's election is one of the few cases in which a vote in the Bundestag requires amajority of all elected members, not just a majority of those assembled at the time, or the so-calledKanzlermehrheit ("chancellor majority"). As with other elections performed by the Bundestag, the chancellor is elected via secret ballot. The election procedure laid down in the Basic Law can be divided into three phases:[17]
The process begins with the president of Germany proposing a candidate to the Bundestag, who is then voted upon without debate ("1st voting phase"). Theoretically, the President is free here, both in terms of the timing of the nomination and the person nominated; in practice, it has become established that the president waits for the usually necessary coalition negotiations after the election and then nominates the person on whom the coalition parties have agreed.
If the nominee reaches the necessary "chancellor majority", the president of Germany will appoint him or her and, after that, the president of the Bundestag will administer the oath of office before the assembled house.
If this nominee is not elected, the right of nomination is transferred onto the Bundestag: Candidates can now be nominated for election, whereby a nomination must be supported by at least a quarter of all MPs. The Bundestag can hold any number of ballots in this manner for two weeks. To be elected, a candidate still needs a "chancellor majority" of yes-votes.
If the Bundestag is unable to elect a chancellor in these fourteen days, a final ballot is held on the very next day. Once again, candidates must be nominated by at least a quarter of all MPs. Candidates receiving a "chancellor majority" in this ballot are elected. Otherwise, it is up to the president of Germany either to appoint the candidate with the plurality of votes as Chancellor or to dissolve the Bundestag and call new elections.
As of 2025, no Chancellor election has proceeded to this phase.
Another possibility to vote a new chancellor into office is theconstructive vote of no confidence, which allows the Bundestag to replace a sitting chancellor, if it elects a new chancellor with the "chancellor-majority" (see "Confidence", below).
As of 2025, 26 chancellor elections have taken place in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany; 24 of these were regular chancellor elections and two were constructive votes of no confidence. Of the 24 regular elections, 23 were successful in the first election phase; only the election of Friedrich Merz in 2025 went into the second phase. Of the two constructive votes of no confidence, one was successful (Helmut Kohl against Helmut Schmidt in 1982), while one failed (Rainer Barzel against Willy Brandt in 1972).
In principle, the Chancellor is dependent on the confidence of Parliament, which is bestowed upon him with the election. The Bundestag can also withdraw its confidence in the Chancellor; however, this is only possible by means of a motion that simultaneously requests the president to appoint a new Chancellor proposed by name; the motion requires (as in an ordinary election of Chancellor) a majority of all members of the Bundestag in order to pass (Constructive vote of no confidence). Such a motion has been tabled twice so far and was successful only once:
This is to be distinguished from a motion of confidence. This is a motion that only the Chancellor can submit to the Bundestag (optionally in conjunction with another motion or bill) to the effect that the Bundestag explicitly expresses its confidence in him (again). However, if the Chancellor loses the vote on this motion, this does not mean that he leaves office; rather, it gives him additional options for action: He can ask the president to dissolve the Bundestag and call a snap election or declare a legislative emergency, during which the government can bypass the Bundestag in the legislative process for a limited period of time. This apparent paradox is due to the fact that the motion of confidence is intended as an instrument of discipline for the chancellor vis-à-vis parliament or the factions supporting him: if the MPs fail to place their trust in him, they risk a new election or a (temporary and partial) disempowerment in the legislative process. In practice, however, the motion of confidence has also established itself as a means for the chancellor to deliberately trigger new elections by submitting the motion of confidence with the explicit goal of losing the vote and then requesting a dissolution of parliament. A total of six times a chancellor has submitted a motion of confidence to date; only twice was it a "genuine motion of confidence" (1982 and 2001), while in four cases the respective chancellor had the goal of triggering a snap election from the outset (1972, 1982, 2005, 2024).
The chancellor must appoint one of the cabinet ministers asvice chancellor (Article 69.1 Basic Law). The vice chancellor may deputise for the chancellor, if they are absent or unable to perform their duties. Although the chancellor is theoretically free to choose any cabinet minister, in coalition governments the leadership of the second biggest coalition party usually designates one of their ministers for the position, whom the chancellor appoints accordingly.
If the chancellor's term in office ends or if they resign, the Bundestag has to elect a new chancellor. The president of Germany may ask the former chancellor to act as chancellor until a new office holder is elected, but if they are unwilling or unable to do so, the president may also appoint the vice chancellor as acting chancellor. This has happened once: On 7 May 1974, ChancellorWilly Brandt resigned as a consequence of theGuillaume affair, an espionage scandal. In his letter of resignation to PresidentGustav Heinemann he requested, to be not asked to remain in office in an acting capacity and instead to appoint the vice chancellor as acting chancellor.[19] President Heinemann followed the request. Vice ChancellorWalter Scheel was appointed acting chancellor and served for nine days until the election of Helmut Schmidt on 16 May 1974.
Scheel not taken into account, three persons, Ludwig Erhard, Willy Brandt, and Olaf Scholz, have held both the office of Vice Chancellor and that of Chancellor of Germany.
Since 2001, the official seat of the chancellor is theFederal Chancellery in Berlin (Bundeskanzleramt). The former seat of the Federal Chancellery, thePalais Schaumburg in the former capitalBonn, now serves as a secondary official seat. The chancellor's country retreat isSchloss Meseberg in the state ofBrandenburg.
The private lodging of the chancellors at Bonn has previously been thechancellor's bungalow built by Ludwig Erhard in the park of Palais Schaumburg, while his predecessor Konrad Adenauer used to live in his private house near Bonn. Under Adenauer, the government had also acquired a villa inDahlem in 1962, a suburban district of southwestern Berlin, as apied-a-terre of the chancellors in West-Berlin. Gerhard Schröder lived there between 1999 and 2001. Since 2004 it has however served as a private residence for the presidents of Germany. Angela Merkel preferred to live with her husband in her private apartment downtown.
The correct style of address in German isHerr Bundeskanzler (male) orFrau Bundeskanzlerin (female). In international correspondence, the chancellor is referred to as "His/Her Excellency the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany" ("Seine/Ihre Exzellenz der Bundeskanzler/die Bundeskanzlerin der Bundesrepublik Deutschland").[1]
Holding the third-highest state office available within Germany, the chancellor of Germany receives €220,000 per annum and a €22,000 bonus, i.e. one and two thirds of Salary Grade B11 (according to § 11 (1) a of the Federal Law on Ministers – Bundesministergesetz, BGBl. 1971 I p. 1166 and attachment IV to the Federal Law on Salaries of Officers – Bundesbesoldungsgesetz, BGBl. 2002 I p. 3020)[20]
^It is unclear whether and from when Erhard was formally a member of the CDU; however, he was a member of the CDU/CSU group in the German Bundestag throughout his chancellorship and was chairman of the CDU from 23 March 1966 – 23 May 1967, which implies membership at least during this period.
^Gesetz über das Staatsoberhaupt des Deutschen Reichs, 1. August 1934: „§ 1. Das Amt des Reichspräsidenten wird mit dem des Reichskanzlers vereinigt. Infolgedessen gehen die bisherigen Befugnisse des Reichspräsidenten auf den Führer und Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler über. Er bestimmt seinen Stellvertreter. § 2. Dieses Gesetz tritt mit Wirkung von dem Zeitpunkt des Ablebens des Reichspräsidenten von Hindenburg in Kraft.“ (PDF).
^de:Michael Kotulla:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. Vom Alten Reich bis Weimar (1495–1934). Springer, Berlin 2008, p. 544.
^Ernst Rudolf Huber:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Vol. IV:Struktur und Krisen des Kaiserreiches.Kohlhammer Verlag 1969, p. 130; the same:Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Vol. V:Weltkrieg, Revolution und Reichserneuerung: 1914–1919. Kohlhammer 1978, p. 545.
^Huber, Ernst Rudolf (1981).Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Band VI: Die Weimarer Reichsverfassung [German Constitutional History since 1789. Volume VI: The Weimar Reich Constitution] (in German). Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. p. 47.
^Apelt, Willibalt (1964).Geschichte der Weimarer Verfassung [History of the Weimar Constitution] (in German) (2nd ed.). Munich/Berlin: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. p. 210.
^Huber, Ernst Rudolf (1981).Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Band VI: Die Weimarer Reichsverfassung [German Constitutional History since 1789. Vol. VI: The Weimar Constitution] (in German). Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. pp. 324 f.
^Huber, Ernst Rudolf (1981).Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Band VI: Die Weimarer Reichsverfassung [German Constitutional History since 1789. Volume VI: The Weimar Reich Constitution] (in German). Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. p. 326.
^Tomuschat, Professor Christian; Currie, Professor David P.; Kommers, Professor Donald P.; Kerr, Raymond."Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany".Gesetze im Internet. Bundesministerium der Justiz and the Bundesamt für Justiz. p. Article 63. Retrieved7 May 2025.
Klein, Hans, ed.The German Chancellors translated by Edna McCow. Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo, and Moscow, Edition q, 1996. On the Federal Republic of Germany's first six chancellors. At theInternet Archive.
Padgett, Stephen, ed.Adenauer to Kohl: The Development of the German Chancellorship. London: Hurst, 1994.
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