Chancellor of Germany - wikipedia Chancellor of Germany This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( July 2017 ) Federal Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Bundeskanzler ( in ) der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Emblem of the German government Incumbent Angela Merkel since 22 November 2005 Executive Branch of the German Federal Government Style Madam Chancellor Mrs. Chancellor Her Excellency ( in international correspondence ) Member of German Federal Cabinet European Council Seat German Chancellery Berlin, Germany Palais Schaumburg Bonn, Germany Appointer President of Germany Term length 4 years ; renewable Inaugural holder Otto von Bismarck Formation 1 July 1867 21 March 1871 24 May 1949 First holder Konrad Adenauer Salary € 220,000 p.a. Website bundeskanzlerin.de The Chancellor of Germany is the head of government of Germany. The current official title in German is Bundeskanzler ( in ), which means `` Federal Chancellor '', and is sometimes shortened to Kanzler ( in ). The term, dating from the Early Middle Ages, is derived from the Latin term cancellarius. In German politics, the Chancellor is the equivalent of a prime minister in many other countries. The German language has two equivalent translations of prime minister, Premierminister and Ministerpräsident. While Premierminister usually refers to heads of government of foreign countries ( such as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ), Ministerpräsident may also refer to the heads of government of most German states. The current Chancellor is Angela Merkel, who is serving her third term in office. She is the first female chancellor, thus being known in German as Bundeskanzlerin ( that particular word was never used officially before Merkel, but it is a grammatically regular formation of a noun denoting a female chancellor, adding `` - in '' to the end of Bundeskanzler ). The modern office of Chancellor evolved from the position created for Otto von Bismarck in the North German Confederation in 1867 ; the Confederation evolved into a German nation - state with the 1871 Unification of Germany. The role of the Chancellor has varied greatly throughout Germany 's modern history. Today, the Chancellor is the country 's effective leader, although in formal protocol, the Bundespräsident and Bundestagspräsident are ranked higher. The Chancellor is not directly elected by the populace, but rather is chosen from within the German parliament ( Bundestag ) at the recommendation of the Bundespräsident, without any preconceptions. Contents 1 Historical overview 2 Chancellor of the North German Confederation ( 1867 -- 1871 ) 3 Chancellor of the German Empire ( 1871 -- 1918 ) 4 Revolutionary period ( 1918 -- 1919 ) 5 Chancellor of the Weimar Republic ( 1919 -- 1933 ) 6 Chancellor of Nazi Germany ( 1933 -- 1945 ) 7 Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany ( since 1949 ) 8 Living former Chancellor 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 11.1 Books 11.2 Articles Historical overview This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( September 2017 ) Germany This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Germany Constitution ( Basic Law ) Human rights Federal Constitutional Court Executive President Frank - Walter Steinmeier Chancellor Angela Merkel Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel Cabinet Merkel III Legislature Federal Convention ( Bundesversammlung ) Federal Council ( Bundesrat ) Federal Diet ( Bundestag ) Joint Committee ( Gemeinsamer Ausschuss ) Judiciary Federal courts Constitutional Administrative Justice Finance Labor Social Administrative divisions States ( Länder ) Administrative regions ( Regierungsbezirke ) Districts ( Kreise ) Collective municipalities ( Ämter ) Municipalities ( Gemeinden ) Elections Electoral system Political parties Referendums Foreign relations Other countries Atlas The office of Chancellor has a long history, stemming back to the Holy Roman Empire, when the office of German archchancellor was usually held by Archbishops of Mainz. The title was, at times, used in several states of German - speaking Europe. The modern office of Chancellor was established with the North German Confederation, of which Otto von Bismarck became Chancellor in 1867. After the Unification of Germany in 1871, the office became known in German as Reichskanzler ( meaning `` Chancellor of the Realm '' ), although it continued to be referred to as Chancellor in English. With Germany 's constitution of 1949, the title of Bundeskanzler ( meaning `` Federal Chancellor '' ) was revived in German. During the various eras, the role of the Chancellor has varied. From 1871 to 1918, the Chancellor was only responsible to the Emperor. With the founding of the republic and the constitutional reform in 1918, the Parliament was granted the right to dismiss the Reichskanzler. According to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the Chancellor was appointed by the President and responsible to Parliament and to the President. When the Nazis came to power on 30 January 1933, the Weimar Constitution was de facto set aside. After the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, Adolf Hitler, the dictatorial head of government and of state ( as no new president was elected ) of Nazi Germany was called officially Führer und Reichskanzler ( meaning `` Leader and Chancellor of the Realm '' ). The 1949 constitution gave the Chancellor much greater powers than during the Weimar Republic, while strongly diminishing the role of the President. Germany is today often referred to as a `` chancellor democracy '', reflecting the role of the Chancellor as the country 's chief executive who has the constitutional authority to establish the guidelines for all fields of government policy. Since 1867, 33 individuals have served as heads of government of Germany or its predecessor, the North German Confederation, most of them with the title of Chancellor. Due to his administrative tasks, the head of the clerics at the chapel of an Imperial palace during the Carolingian Empire was called Chancellor ( from Latin : cancellarius ). The chapel 's college acted as the Emperor 's chancery issuing deeds and capitularies. Since the days of Louis the German, the Archbishop of Mainz was ex officio German Archchancellor, a position he held until the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, while de jure the Archbishop of Cologne was Chancellor of Italy and the Archbishop of Trier of Burgundy. These three Prince - Archbishops were also Prince - electors of the Empire electing the King of the Romans. Already in medieval times, the German Chancellor had political power like Archbishop Willigis ( Archchancellor 975 -- 1011, regent for King Otto III of Germany 991 -- 994 ) or Rainald von Dassel ( Chancellor 1156 -- 1162 and 1166 -- 1167 ) under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. In 1559, Emperor Ferdinand I established the agency of an Imperial chancellery ( Reichshofkanzlei ) at the Vienna Hofburg Palace, headed by a Vice-Chancellor under the nominal authority of the Mainz archbishop. Upon the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, Emperor Ferdinand II created the office of an Austrian Court Chancellor in charge of the internal and foreign affairs of the Habsburg Monarchy. From 1753 onwards, the office of an Austrian State Chancellor was held by Prince Kaunitz. The Imperial chancellery lost its importance, and from the days of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, merely existed on paper. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Prince Metternich served as State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire ( 1821 -- 1848 ), likewise Prince Hardenberg acted as Prussian chancellor ( 1810 -- 1822 ). From 1867 to 1871, the title Bundeskanzler ( federal chancellor ) was again used in the German language, during the time of the North German Confederation. From 1871 to 1945, the office was named Reichskanzler ( Imperial Chancellor ). Since 1949, the formal title of the office in the German language is once again Bundeskanzler. In the now defunct German Democratic Republic ( GDR, East Germany ), which existed from 7 October 1949 to 3 October 1990 ( when the territory of the former GDR was reunified with the Federal Republic of Germany ), the position of Chancellor did not exist. The equivalent position was called either Minister President ( Ministerpräsident ) or Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR ( Vorsitzender des Ministerrats der DDR ). ( See Leaders of East Germany. ) Chancellor of the North German Confederation ( 1867 -- 1871 ) The head of the federal government of the North German Confederation, which was created on 1 July 1867, had the title Bundeskanzler. The only person to hold the office was Otto Graf von Bismarck - Schönhausen ( better known simply as Otto von Bismarck ), the Prime Minister of Prussia. Although the King of Prussia was proclaimed and sworn in as German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on 18 January 1871, the North German Confederation did not cease to exist until the 1871 Constitution of Germany went into force three months later, on 16 April. Bismarck hence remained Chancellor of the Confederation until that date. During these months, the North German Confederation was also referred to as the German Confederation, after the South German states ( excluding Austria ) had joined the confederation. The Chancellor was appointed by the King of Prussia in his capacity as President of the North German Confederation. His role and powers were very similar to that of the office of Chancellor of Germany from 1871. Chancellor of the German Empire ( 1871 -- 1918 ) Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire In the 1871 German Empire, the Imperial Chancellor ( Reichskanzler ) served both as the Emperor 's first minister, and as presiding officer of the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German parliament. He was neither elected by nor responsible to Parliament ( the Reichstag ). Instead, the Chancellor was appointed by the Emperor. The Federal Government consisted of a federal council ( Bundesrat ), consisting of representatives of the federal states and presided over by the King of Prussia a parliament, called the Reichstag a rudimentary federal executive, first led by Otto, Fürst von Bismarck, the Minister - President of Prussia, as Imperial Chancellor in a personal union. Technically, the foreign ministers of the empire 's states instructed their states ' deputies to the Federal Council ( Bundesrat ) and therefore outranked the Chancellor. For this reason, the Fürst von Bismarck ( as he was from 1871 onwards ) continued to serve as both prime minister and foreign minister of Prussia for virtually his entire tenure as Chancellor of the empire, since he wanted to continue to exercise this power. Since Prussia controlled 17 votes in the Bundesrat, Bismarck could effectively control the proceedings by making deals with the smaller states. The term Chancellor signalled the seemingly low priority of this institution compared to the governments of the states, because the new Chancellor of the Federation should not be a fully fledged prime minister, in contrast to the heads of the federal states. The title of Chancellor additionally symbolized a strong monarchic - bureaucratic and ultimately antiparliamentary component, as in the Prussian tradition of, for instance, von Hardenberg. In both of these aspects, the executive of the Federation resp. the Empire, as it was formed in 1867 / 71, was deliberately different from the Imperial Ministry of the revolutionary years 1848 / 49, which had been led by a Prime Minister, who was elected by the National Assembly. In 1871, the concept of the federal chancellor was transferred to the executive of the newly formed German Empire, which now also contained the South German states. Here too, the terms of Chancellor and Federal Agency ( as opposed to Ministry or Government ) suggested an ( apparent ) lower priority of the federal executive as compared to the governments of the federal states. For this reason, neither the Chancellor nor the leaders of the imperial departments under his command used the title of Minister until 1918. The constitution of Germany was amended on 29 October 1918, when the Parliament was given the right to dismiss the Chancellor. However, the change could not prevent the outbreak of the revolution a few days later. Revolutionary period ( 1918 -- 1919 ) On 9 November 1918, Chancellor Max von Baden handed over his office of Chancellor to Friedrich Ebert. Ebert continued to serve as Head of Government during the three months between the end of the German Empire in November 1918 and the first gathering of the National Assembly in February 1919, but did not use the title of Chancellor. During that time, Ebert also served as Chairman of the `` Council of the People 's Deputies '', until 29 December 1918 together with the Independent Social Democrat Hugo Haase. Chancellor of the Weimar Republic ( 1919 -- 1933 ) The office of Chancellor was continued in the Weimar Republic. The Chancellor ( Reichskanzler ) was appointed by the President and was responsible to the Reichstag. Under the Weimar Republic, the Chancellor was a fairly weak figure. Much like his French counterpart, he served as little more than a chairman. Cabinet decisions were made by majority vote. In fact, many of the Weimar governments depended highly on the cooperation of the President, due to the difficulty of finding a majority in Parliament. See Reichskanzler ( 1919 -- 1933 ) in List of Chancellors of Germany Chancellor of Nazi Germany ( 1933 -- 1945 ) Adolf Hitler, Chancellor from 1933 to 1945 Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by Paul von Hindenburg. Upon taking office, Hitler immediately began accumulating power and changing the nature of the Chancellorship. After only two months in office, and following the burning of the Reichstag building, the Reichstag body passed the Enabling Act giving the Reich Chancellor full legislative powers for a period of four years -- the Chancellor could introduce any law without consulting Parliament. Powers of the Chancellor continued to grow until August 1934, when the incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg died. Hitler used the Enabling Act to merge the office of Reich Chancellor with that of President to create a new office, der Führer ; although the offices were merged, Hitler continued to be addressed as `` Führer und Reichskanzler '' indicating that the Head of State and Head of Government were still separate positions albeit held by the same man. This separation was made more evident when, in April 1945, Hitler gave instruction that upon his death the office of Führer would dissolve and there would be a new President and Chancellor. On 30 April 1945, when Hitler committed suicide, he was briefly succeeded as Chancellor by Joseph Goebbels, as dictated in Hitler 's will and testament. With Goebbels following Hitler 's suicide with his own, the reins of power passed to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as President of Germany. Dönitz, in turn, appointed non-partisan conservative Count Schwerin von Krosigk as head of government with the title Leading Minister. Dönitz and Schwerin von Krosigk negotiated the surrender to the Allies. Chancellor of the federal Republic of Germany ( since 1949 ) Main article : Chancellor of Germany ( 1949 -- ) The 1949 German constitution, the Basic 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 ''. Whichever major party ( CDU / CSU or SPD ) 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 his or her cabinet ministers. The Chancellor 's Office in Berlin The chancellor 's authority emanates from the provisions of the Basic Law and in practice from his or her status as leader of the party ( or coalition of parties ) holding a majority of seats in the Bundestag ( federal parliament ). With the exception of Helmut Schmidt, the chancellor has usually also been chairman of his or her own party. This was the case with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder from 1999 until he resigned the chairmanship of the SPD in 2004. The German Chancellor is officially addressed as `` Herr Bundeskanzler '' if the Chancellor is a man. The current holder of this office, Angela Merkel, considered to be the planet 's most influential woman by Forbes Magazine, is officially addressed as `` Frau Bundeskanzlerin '', the feminine form of the title. Use of the mixed form `` Frau Bundeskanzler '' was deprecated by the government in 2004 because it is regarded as impolite and was seen as a way of acknowledging Merkel 's future leadership. Living former Chancellor There is one living former German Chancellor : Gerhard Schröder ( 1998 -- 2005 ) ( 1944 - 04 - 07 ) April 7, 1944 ( age 73 ) See also List of Chancellors of Germany Religious affiliations of Chancellors of Germany References Jump up ^ Ratgeber für Anschriften und Anreden. ( PDF ; 2, 3 MB ) Bundesministerium des Innern - Protokoll Inland, Retrieved January 2010. Jump up ^ `` Frau Bundeskanzler '' oder... `` Frau Bundeskanzlerin '' ? -- n-tv.de Archived 17 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Further reading Books Klein, Herbert, ed. 1993. The German Chancellors. Berlin : Edition. Padgett, Stephen, ed. 1994. The Development of the German Chancellorship : Adenauer to Kohl. London : Hurst. Articles Harlen, Christine M. 2002. `` The Leadership Styles of the German Chancellors : From Schmidt to Schröder. '' Politics and Policy 30 ( 2 ( June ) ) : 347 -- 371. Helms, Ludger. 2001. `` The Changing Chancellorship : Resources and Constraints Revisited. '' German Politics 10 ( 2 ) : 155 -- 168. Mayntz, Renate. 1980. `` Executive Leadership in Germany : Dispersion of Power or ' Kanzler Demokratie ' ? '' In presidents and Prime Ministers, ed. R. Rose and E.N. Suleiman. Washington, D.C : American Enterprise Institute. pp. 139 -- 71. Smith, Gordon. 1991. `` The Resources of a German Chancellor. '' West European Politics 14 ( 2 ) : 48 -- 61. Chancellors of Germany North German Confederation Bundeskanzler ( 1867 -- 1871 ) Otto von Bismarck German Empire Reichskanzler ( 1871 -- 1918 ) Otto von Bismarck Leo von Caprivi Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe - Schillingsfürst Bernhard von Bülow Theobald von Bethmann - Hollweg Georg Michaelis Georg von Hertling Prince Maximilian of Baden Friedrich Ebert Weimar Republic Reichskanzler ( 1919 -- 1933 ) Philipp Scheidemann ( as Ministerpräsident ) Gustav Bauer ( as Ministerpräsident and Chancellor ) Hermann Müller Konstantin Fehrenbach Joseph Wirth Wilhelm Cuno Gustav Stresemann Wilhelm Marx Hans Luther Wilhelm Marx Hermann Müller Heinrich Brüning Franz von Papen Kurt von Schleicher Nazi Germany Reichskanzler ( 1933 -- 1945 ) Adolf Hitler Joseph Goebbels Count Schwerin von Krosigk ( as Leading Minister ) Federal Republic Bundeskanzler ( 1949 -- present ) Konrad Adenauer Ludwig Erhard Kurt Georg Kiesinger Willy Brandt Helmut Schmidt Helmut Kohl Gerhard Schröder Angela Merkel List of Chancellors of Germany Germany portal Politics portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chancellor_of_Germany&oldid=803773157 '' Categories : Chancellors of Germany Lists of political office - holders in Germany 1867 establishments in Germany Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Use dmy dates from July 2017 Articles needing additional references from July 2017 All articles needing additional references Articles containing German - language text Articles needing additional references from September 2017 Articles containing Latin - language text Talk Contents About Wikipedia Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Español Euskara Galego 한국어 Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Italiano עברית Қазақша Latviešu Magyar Македонски മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk پنجابی Polski Português Română Scots Sicilianu සිංහල Simple English Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Tagalog ไทย Tiếng Việt Yorùbá 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 4 October 2017, at 15 : 04. 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Question: what is the role of a chancellor in germany
Answer: head of government