Cabinet of Germany facts for kids

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The Bundesregierung, sometimes called the Bundeskabinett or Federal Cabinet, is the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and it consists of the Chancellor and the Federal Ministers.

The job of the cabinet is listed in the articles 62 to 69 of the constitution. This also has the oath of office that the minister must take.

The Chancellor is responsible for the administrative work of the Federal Government, but the work is delegated to the Head of the Federal Chancellery.

The Chancellor sets the general policy of the Federal Government, and what each ministry should do. The Federal Ministers are responsible for what happens in their own departments, and for making sure that the ministry keeps to the general ideas of the Chancellor. This is known as the departmental principle (German: Ressortprinzip).

If two Federal Ministers disagree about what should be done or about who is to do it or how it is to be done, the Federal Government decides with a majority decision. The is called the cooperative principle (German: Kollegialprinzip).

The Federal Minister Law (German: Bundesministergesetz) says that a retired member of the Federal Government can have a retirement pension, if they have been a minister for at least two years. Time as a junior minister (US "Undersecretary"), who in Germany are called parliamentary permanent secretaries, is counted, and so is previous membership in a Land (state) government.

Parliamentary permanent secretaries and state ministers are not members of the Federal Government, but do help them in their job.

As a rule, the Federal Cabinet meets in the Federal Chancellery every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

Current make-up of the Federal Government

Only members of the CDU/CSU and FDP are in the current Federal Government. Eleven of the 16 members of the Federal Government are members of the Bundestag.

Department	Officeholder	Party	Member of the German Bundestag
Federal Chancellor	Dr. Angela Merkel	CDU	Yes
Foreign Office and Deputy Federal Chancellor	Dr. Guido Westerwelle	FDP	Yes
Interior	Dr. Hans-Peter Friedrich	CDU	Yes
Justice	Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger	FDP	Yes
Finance	Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble	CDU	Yes
Economy and Technology	Rainer Brüderle	FDP	Yes
Work and Social Affairs	Dr. Ursula von der Leyen	CDU	Yes
Food, Farming and Consumer Protection	Ilse Aigner	CSU	Yes
Defence	Dr. Thomas de Maizière	CDU	Yes
Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth	Dr. Kristina Köhler	CDU	Yes
Health	Dr. Philipp Rösler	FDP	No
Traffic, Building and Urban Development	Dr. Peter Ramsauer	CSU	Yes
Environment, Conservation and Nuclear Reactor Safety	Dr. Norbert Röttgen	CDU	Yes
Education and Research	Dr. Annette Schavan	CDU	Yes
Federal Minister without Portfolio and Head of the Federal Chancellery	Ronald Pofalla	CDU	Yes
Economic Cooperation and Development	Dirk Niebel	FDP	Yes

Seniority in the Federal Government

§ 22 of the Standing Orders of the Federal Government controls the seniority in meetings of the Federal Government. If the Chancellor is absent, the Deputy Chancellor is the chairman of the Federal Government. If the deputy is also absent, the longest-serving or the oldest minister chairs the meeting.

These rules mean that the order of seniority is in this table:

Representation order in the German Federal Government
No.	Name	Party	Term start	Date of birth	Department
0	Angela Merkel	CDU	November 22, 2005	July 17, 1954	Federal Chancellor
1	Guido Westerwelle	FDP	October 28, 2009	December 27, 1961	Foreign as Deputy Chancellor
2	Wolfgang Schäuble	CDU	November 22, 2005 October 28, 2009	September 18, 1942	Finance
3	Thomas de Maizière	CDU	November 22, 2005 October 28, 2009	January 21, 1954	Defence
4	Annette Schavan	CDU	November 22, 2005	June 10, 1955	Education and Research
5	Ursula von der Leyen	CDU	November 22, 2005 November 30, 2009	October 8, 1958	Work and Social Affairs
6	Ilse Aigner	CSU	October 31, 2008	December 7, 1964	Diet, Farming and Consumer Protection
7	Rainer Brüderle	FDP	October 28, 2009	June 22, 1945	Economy and Technology
8	Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger	FDP	October 28, 2009	July 26, 1951	Justice
9	Peter Ramsauer	CSU	October 28, 2009	February 10, 1954	Traffic, Building and Urban Development
10	Ronald Pofalla	CDU	October 28, 2009	May 15, 1959	special tasks (chancellery.)
11	Dirk Niebel	FDP	October 28, 2009	March 29, 1963	Economic Cooperation and Development
12	Norbert Röttgen	CDU	October 28, 2009	July 2, 1965	Environment, Conservation and Reactor Safety
13	Philipp Rösler	FDP	October 28, 2009	February 24, 1973	Health
14	Kristina Köhler	CDU	November 30, 2009	August 3, 1977	Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
15	Hans-Peter Friedrich	CDU	March 3, 2010	–	Interior

Lawyers in the Federal Government

This table lists the number and percentage of members of the federal government who were lawyers. In Germany the time between elections is called a "legislative period". In the United Kingdom this would be called a Parliament or in the United States a Congress.

Legislative period	Fully qualified lawyers
Legislative period	Number	Percentage
1. (1949–1953)	6 of 14	42.9%
2. (1953–1957)	5 of 20	25.0%
3. (1957–1961)	7 of 18	38.9%
4. (1961–1965)	8 of 21	38.1%
4. (1961–1965)	7 of 22	31.8%
5. (1965–1969)	7 of 22	31.8%
5. (1965–1969)	6 of 20	30.0%
6. (1969–1972)	4 of 16	25.0%
7. (1972–1976)	8 of 18	44.4%
7. (1972–1976)	4 of 16	25.0%
8. (1976–1980)	4 of 16	25.0%
9. (1980–1983)	8 of 17	47.1%
9. (1980–1983)	8 of 17	47.1%
10. (1983–1987)	8 of 17	47.1%
11. (1987–1990)	9 of 19	47.4%
12. (1990–1994)	6 of 20	33.3%
13. (1994–1998)	9 of 18	50.0%
14. (1998–2002)	3 of 16	18.8%
15. (2002–2005)	6 of 14	42.9%
16. (2005–2009)	6 of 16	37.5%
17. (2009–)	7 of 16	43.8%