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Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)
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The head of government of the German Reich was called Reich Chancellor () or short Chancellor from 1871 until 1945. This designation stems from the German chancellor tradition from the Middle Ages and the early modern era.
The designation Reich Chancellor was sometimes also given to important ministers in other European monarchies, for example to Foreign minister Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust in Austria-Hungary between 1867 and 1871, and to Prince Gorchakov in Russia.
In the 1871 German Empire, the Chancellor served both as the Emperor's first minister, and as presiding officer of the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German parliament.
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The head of government of the German Reich was called Reich Chancellor () or short Chancellor from 1871 until 1945. This designation stems from the German chancellor tradition from the Middle Ages and the early modern era.
The designation Reich Chancellor was sometimes also given to important ministers in other European monarchies, for example to Foreign minister Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust in Austria-Hungary between 1867 and 1871, and to Prince Gorchakov in Russia.
In the 1871 German Empire, the Chancellor 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 1871 constitution was changed on 29 October 1918. However, the change could not prevent the outbreak of the revolution a few days later. The new constitution of the 1919 Weimar Republic said that the Chancellor was appointed by the German President, but that the parliament had the right to dismiss a chancellor or any of the ministers.
Under the Weimar Republic, the Chancellor was a fairly weak figure, serving 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.
Today, the head of government of Germany, who in contrast to the Reich chancellor is the central executive authority of Germany, is known as (federal) Chancellor (Bundeskanzler in German), continuing the chancellor tradition.
For a detailed discussion of the English translation of Reich, see Reich.
The German Empire (1871–1918)
The German Empire was founded in 1871, following the formation of the North German Federation in 1867, both under the hegemony of the largest and most important German state Prussia. The government of the Federation consisted of
- a federal council, consisting of representatives of the federal states and presided over by the king of Prussia
- a parliament, called the Reichstag
- a rudimentary federal executive, led by the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck as Federal Chancellor in a personal union.
Technically, the foreign minister of Prussia was in charge of the federal council and therefore the superior of the chancellor. It was for this reason that von Bismarck was simultaneously chancellor and foreign and prime minister of Prussia.
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 an Imperial 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 Reich Chancellor (as opposed to Reich Prime Minister) and Reich Direction (as opposed to Reich Ministry or Reich Government) suggested an (apparent) lower priority of the imperial 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.
Revolutionary period 1918/19
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, but did not use the title of Chancellor.
During that time, Ebert also served as Chairman of the Council of the People's Delegates, until 29 December 1918 together with the Independent Social Democrat Hugo Haase.
Chancellors of the Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
| # | Picture | Name | Took Office | Left Office | Political Party | 1. | | Philipp Scheidemann (Reichsministerpräsident) | February 13, 1919 | June 20, 1919 | Social Democrats | 2. | | Gustav Bauer (Reichskanzler since August 14) | June 21, 1919 | March 26, 1920 | Social Democrats | 3. | | Hermann Müller (1st term) | March 27, 1920 | June 8, 1920 | Social Democrats | 4. | | Konstantin Fehrenbach | June 25, 1920 | May 4, 1921 | Centre | 5. | | Joseph Wirth | May 10, 1921 | November 14, 1922 | Centre | 6. | | Wilhelm Cuno | November 22, 1922 | August 12, 1923 | No Party | 7. | | Gustav Stresemann | August 13, 1923 | November 30, 1923 | People's Party | 8. | | Wilhelm Marx (1st term) | November 30, 1923 | January 15, 1925 | Centre | 9. | | Hans Luther | January 15, 1925 | May 12, 1926 | No Party | 10. | | Wilhelm Marx (2nd term) | May 17, 1926 | June 12, 1928 | Centre | 11. | | Hermann Müller (2nd term) | June 28, 1928 | March 27, 1930 | Social Democrats | 12. | | Heinrich Brüning | March 30, 1930 | May 30, 1932 | Centre | 13. | | Franz von Papen | June 1, 1932 | November 17, 1932 | No Party | 14. | | Kurt von Schleicher | December 2, 1932 | January 28, 1933 | No Party |
Chancellors of Nazi Germany (1933–1945)
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, a point which historians agree marks the beginning of the Third Reich. Upon taking office Hitler immediately began to accumulate power and change the nature of the Chancellery. After only two months in office the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act which gave the Office of Chancellor full executive powers for a period of four years- the Chancellor could introduce any law without consulting parliament. However, the Chancellorship grew greater still in August 1934 when the incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg died. Hitler used the enabling act to merge the office of Chancellor with that of President to create a new office- 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 Hitler committed suicide and was succeeded as Chancellor by Joseph Goebbels, as dictated in Hitler's Last Will and Testament.
| # | Picture | Name | Took Office | Left Office | Political Party | 1. | | Adolf Hitler (Führer and Reich Chancellor from 1934) | January 30, 1933 | April 30, 1945 | National Socialist | 2. | | Joseph Goebbels | April 30, 1945 | May 1, 1945 | National Socialist |
See also
- Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic)
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