Talk:List of chancellors of Germany

Latest comment: 1 year ago by Hux in topic Should Krosigk be on this list?
Featured listList of chancellors of Germany is a featured list, which means it has been identified as one of the best lists produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured list on January 14, 2019.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
June 24, 2018Featured list candidatePromoted

Image copyright problem with Image:Erhard.jpg edit

The image Image:Erhard.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

  • That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
  • That this article is linked to from the image description page.

The following images also have this problem:

This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --13:18, 9 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Political Affiliation of Imperial Chancellors edit

The unofficial party designation for Chancellors of Imperial Germany is misleading. While it is a roughly accurate guide to the personal politics of the individual Chancellors they never had an affiliation with any of the parties in the Reichstag. Even von Bismarck, who could be considered an "arch-conservative", did not have any formal ties to the Conservative party. It might be more accurate to list the 'governing coalitions' or Reichstag majorities that each chancellor relied on to support their legislation.

Bismarck edit

For the image of Bismarck, it may be worth considering to choose an image from his time in office. The current one is from a time after he left the chancellery. 188.100.192.198 (talk) 17:29, 12 December 2009 (UTC)Reply

East Germany edit

It is not appropriate to list the leaders of the DDR here - they were not "Chancellors". The run of Federal Chancellors is recognised as being continuous from Adenauer. Besides, they mess up the formatting. I have added an explanation to the modern section to indicate that the DDR had separate leadership, which was merged into the Federal Republic in 1990. This is all that is required. BartBassist (talk) 11:30, 16 August 2010 (UTC)Reply

Constitutionally, the DDR was absorbed into the West German state, which carried on as before with altered boundaries. It is therefore correct to show a single succession of chancellors from Adenauer to the present. 81.168.45.105 (talk) 11:27, 20 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Picture Hitler edit

Is there any good reason why there is a lithography/painting instead of a photo? There are plenty of photos with undoubted licensing. --VonFernSeher (talk) 18:53, 2 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

File:Foto KGKiesinger.jpg Nominated for Deletion edit

  An image used in this article, File:Foto KGKiesinger.jpg, has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Deletion requests February 2012
What should I do?

Don't panic; a discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. This gives you an opportunity to contest the deletion, although please review Commons guidelines before doing so.

  • If the image is non-free then you may need to upload it to Wikipedia (Commons does not allow fair use)
  • If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale then it cannot be uploaded or used.

To take part in any discussion, or to review a more detailed deletion rationale please visit the relevant image page (File:Foto KGKiesinger.jpg)

This is Bot placed notification, another user has nominated/tagged the image --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 01:11, 26 February 2012 (UTC)Reply

Scheel not in the timeline? edit

I wonder why the short period as acting chancellor of Walter Scheel is not mentioned in the timeline. Goebbels "acted" just <1 day as chancellor and is shown. --134.110.31.95 (talk) 15:18, 27 August 2014 (UTC)Reply

Days in office edit

Excel gives some different days in office:

  • Kurt von Schleicher ... 56 ... -1
  • Konrad Adenauer ... 5,134 ... -10
  • Ludwig Erhard ... 1,140 ... -2
  • Willy Brandt ... 1,658 ... -1

The three minor discrepancies may come down to differences in the way part-days are counted. The size of the Adenauer discrepancy suggests that there is a mistake somewhere. 81.168.45.105 (talk) 11:19, 20 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Two issues; title edit

Hello, I see two certain issues, aside from some minor things. The list contains not only "chancellors" but also bearers of other titles, such as "Reichsministerpräsident". That calls for a change of the lemma (article title). Second, seeing it now the introduction could be streamlined to matters regarding the title, and only very basically the function. The rest is explained in specific articles. Kind regards Ziko (talk) 22:38, 9 August 2016 (UTC)Reply

Chancellor to be elected by the 19th Bundestag edit

According to the German constitution (Article 39), the chancellor remains in office until the constitutive assembly of the next Bundestag, which must occur at the latest 30 days after the election. This means that Angela Merkel remains chancellor until then. After that It would be customary for Merkel to remain as acting chancellor until such time as the 19th Bundestag elects a new chancellor and they are appointed by the president. This means that Merkel's third term has not ended, and any statements about a fourth term are speculation (however likely it may be that Merkel will be elected and appointed as the next chancellor). Since 1976, as I understand it, even if the Bundestag is "dissolved" its current session continues until a new one is elected. --Boson (talk) 07:52, 26 September 2017 (UTC)Reply

Requested move 5 May 2019 edit

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Moved (closed by non-admin page mover) Danski454 (talk) 15:56, 12 May 2019 (UTC)Reply


List of Chancellors of GermanyList of chancellors of Germany – Per MOS:JOBTITLES: "Offices, titles, and positions such as president, king, emperor, grand duke, lord mayor, pope, bishop, abbot, chief financial officer, and executive director are common nouns and therefore should be in lower case when used generically. They are capitalized... when a formal title for a specific entity... is not plural." Major style guides such as AP Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style explicitly state that "chancellors" should be lower case. Surtsicna (talk) 15:52, 5 May 2019 (UTC)Reply


The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Germany before and after 1949 edit

Hitler, whether you like him or not, is part of German history. Attempting to remove him out of history is not the best way for what is supposed to be a neutral encyclopedia. This article makes it look like Germany after 1949 is a brand new country. This is not correct, no matter how hard people attempt to influence history. I recommend putting all the scales, graphs, tables, etc to show without the split (before and after 1949). 9XY (talk) 16:52, 29 October 2019 (UTC)Reply

Does Hitler have to be at the top? edit

I think it would be better to give Merkel the spotlight alongside the other Chancellors at the top and leave Hitler to be lower down. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:EmilePersaud 21:28, 30 September 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by EmilePersaud (talkcontribs) Reply

  • Comment I think there is a case for doing this, mostly because Angela Merkel is now the third longest serving Chancellor in German history. Otto von Bismarck served as Chancellor for roughly 23 years, Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel for 16 years, Konrad Adenauer for 14 years. To contrast, Adolf Hitler was in power for 12 years. On the other hand there is also the question of historical significance, so this will definitely need further discussion to form a consensus on the mater. --Grnrchst (talk) 11:35, 14 December 2021 (UTC)Reply

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion edit

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:38, 27 June 2022 (UTC)Reply

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion edit

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:07, 7 August 2022 (UTC)Reply

Should Krosigk be on this list? edit

I'm reading elsewhere that, following Goebbels' suicide on May 1, 1945, Karl Dönitz offered the chancellorship to Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, but Krosigk declined and instead became "Leading Minister" on May 2. So, given that he was never actually Chancellor, I don't think he should be listed here. What do you all think? -- Hux (talk) 08:30, 3 April 2023 (UTC)Reply