Chancellor of Germany (1949–present) on the recommendation of the chancellor; no parliamentary approval is needed. According to the Basic Law, the chancellor may set the number of cabinet ministers and dictate their specific duties. Chancellor Ludwig Erhard had the largest cabinet, with 22 ministers, in the mid-1960s. Helmut Kohl presided over 17 ministers at the start of his fourth term in 1994; the 2002 cabinet, the second of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, had 13 ministers, and the Angela Merkel cabinet as of 22 November 2005 had 15. Article 65 of the Basic Law sets forth three principles that define how the executive branch functions: Whenever
Chancellor of Germany (1949–present) the office of Chancellor has fallen vacant, which happens if the Chancellor dies or resigns, or if a newly elected "Bundestag" ("Federal Diet", the German Parliament) meets for the first time, the Chancellor is elected by a majority of the members of the "Bundestag" upon the proposal of the President ("Bundespräsident", literally "Federal President") ("1st voting phase"). This vote is one of the few cases in which a decision requires a majority of all elected members of the "Bundestag", not just a majority of those assembled at the time. This is referred to as the "Kanzlermehrheit" ("chancellor majority"), and is