Tasks and capacities

Tasks

The Chancellery

The Federal Chancellery, as the Federal Ministries alike, is a supreme federal authority. It has outstanding political significance as the coordinating centre for government policy as a whole.

The Chancellery is in constant contact with the Ministries and the other federal authorities, so as to keep the Chancellor constantly informed of their current projects.

The Chancellery deals with departmental affairs in parallel with the Ministries. As the structure of the Chancellery’s working units mirrors this, they are also known as the ‘mirror divisions’.

The task of these mirror divisions is to either be informed on all essential affairs in their respective field or to ensure being updated as quickly as possible. The mirror divisions fulfil what might be called a liaison role between the respective departments on the one hand and the Chancellor and the Chancellery on the other.

It is incumbent upon the mirror divisions to prepare all ministerial informational reports so as to provide the Chancellor and her Cabinet with a basis for any decision that they take. Vice versa, the mirror divisions support and promote decisions by the Chancellor and her cabinet for ‘their’ respective departments.

Within the governmental centre, these mirror divisions form a small-scale projection of the whole of the Federal Government. This structure is decisive for the competency and efficiency of the Chancellery. Because this is how the Chancellor can govern the Ministries’ compliance with her policy guidelines. It enables her to have the required in-depth knowledge at the ready when meeting with her departmental Ministers.

The weekly meetings and the decisions by the Federal Cabinet are prepared by the Chancellery. All replies to the inquiries that the government receives from the German Bundestag are coordinated by this authority. The Chancellery thus also acts as a secretariat for the Federal Government.

The amplitude of its tasks and the close supportive role towards the Chancellor afford the Chancellery its central role in Germany’s political landscape. It therefore is no exaggeration to refer to the Chancellery as the control centre of government policy.

Function

Just as in the Federal Ministries, a managing level and what is known as the working floor may be distinguished within the Chancellery. This customary distinction should not be misunderstood however. Of course, people in the management level work very hard indeed and employees on the work floor do also perform executive tasks.

Nevertheless, this distinction provides an insight into the interaction between the levels: the level of the administrative decision and policy-makers and the level of employees in the departments. The latter perform mainly expert tasks.

Executive level

The executive branch comprises the Federal Chancellor, the administrative head of the Federal Chancellery, the Chancellor’s Ministers of State and their respective offices.

The Head of the Federal Chancellery (short ChefBK) manages the authority and all its different tasks.

Chancellor’s office

For her immediate duties the Chancellor has an own office at her disposal. The duties of this office are to coordinate the Chancellor’s personal interviews and her appointments. It prepares her mail and sifts out those letters, telephone calls and requests for an appointment that require the Chancellor's personal attention. Subsequently, the office prepares the Chancellor’s appointments and her interviews.

The office replies to the numerous letters, inputs and petitions received by the Chancellery, unless, of course, the responsible executives themselves reply or a reply by the departments of the Chancellery is required due to the expert character of its content.