Chancellor

Chancellor (cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the audience. A chancellor's office is called a chancellery or chancery. The word is now used in the titles of many various officers in various settings (government, education, religion). Nowadays the term is most often used to describe: The head of the government A person in charge of foreign affairs A person with duties related to justice A person in charge of financial and economic issues The head of a university The Chancellor of Austria, denominated Bundeskanzler for males and Bundeskanzlerin for females, is the title of the head of the Government of Austria. Since 2021, the Chancellor of Austria is Karl Nehammer. The Chancellor of Germany, denominated Bundeskanzler for males and Bundeskanzlerin for females, is the title for the head of government in Germany. In German politics, the Bundeskanzler position is equivalent to that of a prime minister and is elected by the Bundestag ("Federal Diet", the directly elected federal parliament) every four years on the beginning of the electoral period after general elections. Between general elections, the Chancellor (together with the whole cabinet) can only be removed from office by a konstruktives Misstrauensvotum (constructive vote of no confidence), which consists in the candidacy of an opposition candidate for the office of Chancellor in the Bundestag. Candidates receiving a majority of the entire membership of the Bundestag will be sworn in immediately as new Chancellor. Since 2021, the German Bundeskanzler is Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) The former German Empire, the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany had the equivalent position of Reichskanzler ("Reich Chancellor") as the head of the executive. Between 1871 and 1918, the Chancellor was appointed by the German Emperor.