Chancellor of Germany was not even re-installed. In the 1871 German Empire, the imperial chancellor ("Reichskanzler") served both as the emperor's first minister, and as presiding officer of the Bundesrat, the upper chamber of the German parliament. He was neither elected by nor responsible to Parliament (the "Reichstag"). Instead, the chancellor was appointed by the emperor. The federal level had four organs: Technically, the foreign ministers of the empire's states instructed their states' deputies to the federal council (Bundesrat) and therefore outranked the chancellor. For this reason, Prince Bismarck (as he was from 1871 onwards) continued to serve as both prime minister and
Vice-Chancellor of Germany in any other way. It is the President who asks the Vice Chancellor to fulfill the Chancellor's duties until the Bundestag elects a new Chancellor. This has happened only once: Vice Chancellor Walter Scheel was acting Chancellor for nine days in May 1974 between Chancellor Willy Brandt’s resignation and Helmut Schmidt’s election. The office was initially established by the 1878 "Stellvertretungsgesetz" (Deputation Act), which provided for the Imperial Chancellor appointing a deputy, officially known as "Allgemeiner Stellvertreter des Reichskanzlers" (General Deputy to the Imperial Chancellor). In addition to the general deputy, who would be responsible for all the affairs of