The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, is the head of government of Germany. The chancellor is elected by the Bundestag on the proposal of the federal president and without debate (Article 63 of the German Constitution). During a state of defence declared by the Bundestag the chancellor also assumes the position of commander-in-chief of the Bundeswehr.
Ten people (nine men and one woman) have served as chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, the first being Konrad 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 is Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union, sworn in on 6 May 2025.
History of the office (pre-1949)
The office of chancellor has a long history, stemming back to the Holy Roman Empire (c. 900–1806). The title of chancellor (Latin: cancellarius) was given to the head of the clerics at the Imperial chapel. The chapel's college acted as the emperor's chancery issuing deeds and capitularies. Eventually, the office of imperial archchancellor was given to the archbishops of Mainz.
In 1559, Emperor Ferdinand I established the agency of an imperial chancellery (Reichshofkanzlei) at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, headed by a vice chancellor under the nominal authority of the archbishop of Mainz. Upon the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, Emperor Ferdinand II created the office of court chancellor for the Archduchy of Austria. This office was in charge of the internal and foreign affairs of the Habsburg monarchy. From May 1753 to August 1792, the office of an Austrian state chancellor was held by Prince Kaunitz. The imperial chancellery lost its importance, and from the days of Queen Maria Theresa and Holy Roman emperor Joseph II, merely existed on paper.
After the 1806 dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire by Napoleon, Prince Klemens von Metternich served as state chancellor of the Austrian Empire. Likewise Prince Karl August von Hardenberg acted as chancellor of the Kingdom of Prussia (1810–1822). At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna established the German Confederation as a replacement for the Holy Roman Empire, but this organisation did not have a government or legislature, only the Bundestag that represented the member states.
The modern office of chancellor was established with the beginning of the North German Confederation in 1867, after the Prussian Army's decisive victory in the brief Austro-Prussian War of 1866 over the rival Austrian Empire. Unlike its predecessor the German Confederation, the North German Confederation did have an office of Bundeskanzler (federal Chancellor), which was given to the Minister-President of Prussia Otto von Bismarck. In 1871 the North German Confederation transformed into the German Empire, with the federal chancellor becoming Reichskanzler (imperial chancellor). The office of Reichskanzler continued during the Weimar Republic (1918–1933).
In Nazi Germany the office of Reichskanzler was never formally abolished, but instead combined with the office of Reichspräsident. On 1 August 1934, the day before Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg's death, the Hitler 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.
In May 1949, four years after the End of World War II in Europe, the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, aka West Germany, revived the office of Bundeskanzler.
The reunification 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 the Bundespräsidium, (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 the Bundesrat (Federal Council), the representative organ of the various German states. The chancellor was also nearly always Minister 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.
Although effective government was possible only in cooperation with the Reichstag, the results of the elections had at most an indirect influence on the chancellorship. By October 1918 on the verge of disastrous defeat in the First World War, was the Empire's 1871 constitution changed and reformed, to require that the chancellor have the confidence of parliament (as in the UK House of Commons and other European parliamentary democracies).
On 9 November 1918, Chancellor Max von Baden declared the abdication of the emperor Wilhelm II without having been authorized to do so by Wilhelm.
Wilhelm had left Berlin on 29 October to travel to Spa, Belgium where the Oberste Heeresleitung resided.
On 10 November, one day after the republic in Germany had been proclamated, Wilhelm fled to the Netherlands
and asked for asylum (that Queen Wilhelinma granted him two days later).
At the end of November 1918, his wife emperess Auguste Victoria left Berlin and travelled to the Netherlands.
Following the defeat a new post-war democratic Republican government was set up by the popularly elected Weimar National Assembly, which met in Weimar (Thuringia in 1919/20. According to the Weimar constitution, the chancellor was head of a collegial democratic government. The chancellor was appointed by the new president 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 if Reichstag demanded it. As today, the chancellor had the prerogative 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 his French counterpart, the Weimar-era chancellor was as much the chairman of the cabinet as he was its leader.