The chancellor of Germany is the political leader of Germany and the head of the federal government. The office holder is responsible for selecting all other members of the government and chairing cabinet meetings.[1]
The office was created in the North German Confederation in 1867, when Otto von Bismarck became the first chancellor. With the unification of Germany and establishment of the German Empire in 1871, the Confederation evolved into a German nation-state and its leader became known as the chancellor of Germany. Originally, the chancellor was only responsible to the emperor. This changed with the constitutional reform in 1918, when the Parliament was given the right to dismiss the chancellor. Under the 1919 Weimar Constitution the chancellors were appointed by the directly elected president, but were responsible to Parliament.[2]
The constitution was set aside during the 1933–1945 Nazi regime. During the Allied occupation, no independent German government and no chancellor existed; and the office was not reconstituted in East Germany, thus the head of government of East Germany was chairman of the Council of Ministers. The 1949 Basic Law made the chancellor the most important office in West Germany, while diminishing the role of the president.[3]
Political parties:
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Political party | Cabinet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | |||||||
| 1 | Otto von Bismarck | 1871 | 1890 | Non-partisan | Bismarck | ||||
| 2 | Leo von Caprivi | 1890 | 1894 | Non-partisan | Caprivi | ||||
| 3 | Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst | 1894 | 1900 | Non-partisan | Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst | ||||
| 4 | Bernhard von Bülow | 1900 | 1909 | Non-partisan | Bülow | ||||
| 5 | Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg | 1909 | 1917 | Non-partisan | Bethmann Hollweg | ||||
| 6 | Georg Michaelis | 1917 | 1917 | Non-partisan | Michaelis | ||||
| 7 | Georg von Hertling | 1917 | 1918 | Centre Party | Hertling | ||||
| 8 | Max von Baden | 1918 | 1918 | Non-partisan | Baden | ||||
On 9 November 1918, Chancellor Max von Baden handed over his office 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 as Chairman of the Council of the People's Deputies, until 29 December 1918 together with USPD Leader Hugo Haase.[6] The Weimar Constitution of 1919 set the framework for the Weimar Republic. The chancellors were officially installed by the president; in some cases the chancellor did not have a majority in parliament. Political parties:
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Political party | Cabinet | Reichstag | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | ||||||||
| 9 | Friedrich Ebert | 1918 | 1919 | Social Democratic Party | – | |||||
| 10 | Philipp Scheidemann | 1919 | 1919 | Social Democratic Party | Nat.Ass. | |||||
| 11 | Gustav Bauer | 1919 | 1920 | Social Democratic Party | ||||||
| 12 | Hermann Müller | 1920 | 1920 | Social Democratic Party | Nat.Ass. | |||||
| 13 | Constantin Fehrenbach | 1920 | 1921 | Centre Party | 1 | |||||
| 14 | Joseph Wirth | 1921 | 1922 | Centre Party | ||||||
| 15 | Wilhelm Cuno | 1922 | 1923 | Non-partisan | ||||||
| 16 | Gustav Stresemann | 1923 | 1923 | German People's Party | ||||||
| 17 | Wilhelm Marx | 1923 | 1925 | Centre Party | ||||||
| 2 | ||||||||||
| 18 | Hans Luther | 1925 | 1926 | Non-partisan | 3 | |||||
| 19 | Wilhelm Marx | 1926 | 1928 | Centre Party | ||||||
| 20 | Hermann Müller | 1928 | 1930 | Social Democratic Party | 4 | |||||
| 21 | Heinrich Brüning | 1930 | 1932 | Centre Party | 5 | |||||
| 22 | Franz von Papen | 1932 | 1932 | Non-partisan | 6 | |||||
| 23 | Kurt von Schleicher | 1932 | 1933 | Non-partisan | 7 | |||||
| 24 | Adolf Hitler | 1933 | 1933 | National Socialist German Workers' Party | 8 | |||||
Soon after Adolf Hitler was appointed as chancellor in 1933, the German Reichstag (parliament) passed the so-called Enabling Act (German: German: Ermächtigungsgesetz), officially titled "Law for Removing the Distress of People and Reich" (German: German: Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich), which effectively gave the chancellor the power of a dictator. This event marked the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of Nazi Germany.[7] Hitler thereupon destroyed all democratic systems and consolidated all power to himself. After the death of president Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler merged the offices of chancellor and president in his own person and called himself German: [[Führer]] und Reichskanzler.
Political parties:
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Political party | Cabinet | Reichstag | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | ||||||||
| 25 | Adolf Hitler | 1933 | 1945 | National Socialist German Workers' Party | 9 | |||||
| 10 | ||||||||||
| 11 | ||||||||||
| 26 | Joseph Goebbels | 1945 | 1945 | National Socialist German Workers' Party | — | |||||
| 27 | Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk | 1945 | 1945 | National Socialist German Workers' Party | — | |||||
In 1949, two separate German states were established: the Federal Republic of Germany (known as West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (known as East Germany). The list below gives the chancellors of West Germany; the government of East Germany was headed by the chairman of the Council of Ministers.[8] In 1990, East Germany was dissolved as it merged with West Germany; Germany was reunified. It retained the name of the Federal Republic of Germany.[9]
Political parties:
| Portrait | Name | Term of office | Political party | Cabinet | Bundestag | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | Time in office | ||||||||
| 1 | Konrad Adenauer | 1949 | 1963 | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | ||||||
| 3 | ||||||||||
| 4 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Ludwig Erhard | 1963 | 1966 | Independent | ||||||
| 5 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Kurt Georg Kiesinger | 1966 | 1969 | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | ||||||
| 4 | Willy Brandt | 1969 | 1974 | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 6 | |||||
| 7 | ||||||||||
| – | Walter Scheel | 1974 | 1974 | Free Democratic Party (FDP) | ||||||
| 5 | Helmut Schmidt | 1974 | 1982 | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | ||||||
| 8 | ||||||||||
| 9 | ||||||||||
| 6 | Helmut Kohl | 1982 | 1998 | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | ||||||
| 10 | ||||||||||
| 11 | ||||||||||
| 12 | ||||||||||
| 13 | ||||||||||
| 7 | Gerhard Schröder | 1998 | 2005 | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 14 | |||||
| 15 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Angela Merkel | 2005 | 2021 | Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 16 | |||||
| 17 | ||||||||||
| 18 | ||||||||||
| 19 | ||||||||||
| 9 | Olaf Scholz | 2021 | Incumbent | Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 20 | |||||