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
Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany office of German Chancellors. The given numbers show the percentage of people agreeing with the statement that the named Chancellor was a good one: It was not asked for the first three German Chancellors (Adenauer, Erhard, Kiesinger). In December 2013, Forsa reasked 1002 Germans to name the most notable German Chancellor: In May 2015, YouGov asked 1111 Germans to name the best German Chancellor in their opinion: Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany Historical rankings of Chancellors of Germany are surveys conducted to construct rankings of the success and popularity of the individuals who have served as Chancellor of Germany