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
History of Germany since 1990 event known as the German Reunification. Elections for new state parliaments were held in the five states on October 14, and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany became the largest party in all states except Brandenburg, where the Social Democratic Party of Germany became the largest party. The reunified Berlin became the capital of Germany on October 3, although the government continued to have its seat in Bonn until 1999. December 2 marks the first elections for the city parliament after reunification. The first federal election after reunification, the German federal election, 1990, took place on December 2 in that