Cabinet of Germany

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.

Third Merkel Cabinet

Only members of CDU-CSU and SPD are in the Third Merkel Cabinet (2013-2018).

Department	Officeholder	Party
Federal Chancellor	Angela Merkel	CDU
Foreign Office and Deputy Federal Chancellor	Sigmar Gabriel	SPD
Economic Affairs and Energy	Brigitte Zypries	SPD
Interior	Thomas de Maizière	CDU
Justice and Consumer Protection	Heiko Maas	SPD
Finance	Wolfgang Schäuble	CDU
Labour and Social Affairs	Andrea Nahles	SPD
Food and Agriculture	Christian Schmidt	CSU
Defence	Ursula von der Leyen	CDU
Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth	Katarina Barley	SPD
Health	Hermann Gröhe	CDU
Transport and Digital Infrastructure	Alexander Dobrindt	CSU
Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety	Barbara Hendricks	SPD
Education and Research	Johanna Wanka	CDU
Economic Cooperation and Development	Gerd Müller	CSU
Federal Minister for Special Tasks and Head of the Federal Chancellery	Peter Altmaier	CDU

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
	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%
	7 of 22	31.8%
5. (1965–1969)	7 of 22	31.8%
	6 of 20	30.0%
6. (1969–1972)	4 of 16	25.0%
7. (1972–1976)	8 of 18	44.4%
	4 of 16	25.0%
8. (1976–1980)	4 of 16	25.0%
9. (1980–1983)	8 of 17	47.1%
	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. (2009–2013)	7 of 16	43.8%
18. (2013-2018)	9 of 16	56,2%