section_path: History of the office (pre-1949)/North German Confederation (1867–1870) and German Empire
section_name: North German Confederation (1867–1870) and German Empire
paragraph_text: North German Confederation (1867–1870) and German Empire
  
  The North German Confederation was created on 1 July 1867. According to the constitution of this federal state, the king of Prussia served as Bundespräsidium (in fact a head of state) and appointed a Bundeskanzler. This chancellor was the only member of the executive, the only responsible minister. Legislation was the task of two organs:
  
  A law could only pass with the consent of both organs. The federal council was not considered to be a parliament or parliament chamber, as its members were not elected for a fixed period of time, but appointed representatives of the states' governments. Though, the two organs can also be described as upper house and lower house since they shared the task of legislation.
  
  After the south German states had joined the federal state in 1870/71, during the war against France, the North German Confederation transformed into the Deutsches Reich or German Empire. At this occasion, the term Bundeskanzler was recoined as Reichskanzler, and the king of Prussia was given the title of emperor additionally. The political system remained largely the same.
  
  Otto von Bismarck was (from 1862) Prime Minister of Prussia, the largest state in the Confederation. He retained this office and used it to set up the new federal state; he was not interested in a fully developed federal executive with cabinet ministers acting independently. But Bismarck also had another reason to remain Prime Minister of Prussia.
  
  According to the constitution, the chancellor was only a federal minister and presided over the Bundesrat. As chancellor, his powers were limited because he could not introduce bills, speak in parliament or dismiss parliament (which the Prussian government could do in Prussia, for example). As chairman of the Bundesrat, he had no voting rights.
  
  It therefore made sense for Bismarck to hold both offices, at federal and state level:
  
  Through this bundling of offices, chancellor Bismarck used the power of the federal council to govern. As a member of the federal council, he had speaking rights in the parliament. He de facto introduced draft bills into the legislative process. Thanks to the federal council he could, with the approval of the emperor, dismiss parliament and call for new elections. Likewise, most of Bismarck's successors were chancellor and prime minister at the same time, although the constitution never asked for this combination.
  
  In 1878, a new law (Stellvertretungsgesetz) installed the office of Staatssekretär. The chancellor was given the opportunity to formally install state secretaries to represent him and sign for him (contraseign). The chancellor, though, could overrule any of them any time. The office of State Secretary did not formally evolve into a cabinet minister. In practice, however, state secretaries acted in a similar way to ministers in other countries.
  
  The constitution of the German Empire was reformed on 29 October 1918, when the parliament (Reichstag) was given the right to dismiss the chancellor. However, the reform was too little too late to prevent the outbreak of revolution a few days later.