Adenauer, Kohl and Merkel held Germany’s chancellery for 46 of the Federal Republic’s first 76 years

03Time in office

Kohl outlasted Merkel by ten days. Kiesinger lasted less than a fifth as long

Counted from the day of election to the day of the successor’s election, Helmut Kohl served 5,870 days and Angela Merkel 5,860 days. The shortest completed term, Kurt Georg Kiesinger’s, lasted 1,055 days. Friedrich Merz’s bar is still growing.

Days in office, longest first (Merz: to 6 November 2026)

04Two parties

The CDU has held the office for 52.2 years, the SPD for 23.4. Everyone else: nine days

Counting completed terms only, the CDU’s chancellors governed for 19,071 days and the SPD’s for 8,547 days. No other party has ever had a chancellor. The FDP came closest in May 1974, when its Walter Scheel stood in for nine days.

Time in office by party, 1949 – 2025 (completed terms)

05Bonn to Berlin

Five chancellors ruled from a Bonn villa. Since 2001, they rule from Berlin

Konrad Adenauer moved into Palais Schaumburg, a villa on the Rhine in Bonn, on 25 November 1949; it stayed the chancellor’s office until 1976. Gerhard Schröder was the first to work in the new Federal Chancellery in Berlin, by Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank, which he moved into on 2 May 2001. Merkel, Scholz and Merz have governed from there since.