Head of the State Chancellery

Head of the State Chancellery is the functional designation for the head of the State Chancellery in a German country . In the city-states of Berlin , Bremen and Hamburg , the job title is head of the Senate Chancellery . In both cases the abbreviation “CdS” is used.

Office holders and titles

Heads of state or senate chancelleries can hold different ranks. They are either permanent state secretaries or state councilors or state ministers (ministers, state ministers, senators).

Acting heads of the state or senate chancelleries (as of March 4, 2020)
country	Official name of the government headquarters	Office and function designation of the CdS	Official	Taking office
Baden-Württemberg	State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg	State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery	Florian Stegmann	October 2018
Bavaria ¹	Bavarian State Chancellery	Head of the State Chancellery and Minister of State for Federal and European Affairs and the Media	Florian Herrmann	March 21, 2018
Bavaria ¹	Bavarian State Chancellery	State Councilor, Head of the State Chancellery and authorized representative of the Free State of Bavaria at the federal level	Karolina Gernbauer	March 1, 2010
Berlin	The Governing Mayor - Senate Chancellery	State Secretary and Head of the Senate Chancellery	Christian Gaebler	17th April 2018
Brandenburg	State Chancellery of the State of Brandenburg	Minister and Head of the State Chancellery	Kathrin Schneider	20th November 2019
Bremen	Senate Chancellery Bremen	State Councilor and Head of the Senate Chancellery	Thomas Ehmke	15th August 2019
Hamburg	Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg - Senate Chancellery	State Councilor and Head of the Senate Chancellery and Personnel Office	Jan Poerksen	1st October 2018
Hesse	Hessian State Chancellery	Minister of State in the portfolio of the Prime Minister and Head of the State Chancellery	Axel Wintermeyer	August 31, 2010
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	The Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - State Chancellery	State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery	Heiko Geue	May 22, 2019
Lower Saxony	Lower Saxony State Chancellery	State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery	Jörg Mielke	19th February 2013
North Rhine-Westphalia	State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia	State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery	Nathanael Liminski	June 30, 2017
Rhineland-Palatinate	State Chancellery Rhineland-Palatinate	State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery	Clemens Hoch	November 12, 2014
Saarland	State Chancellery of the Saarland	State Secretary, Head of the State Chancellery and representative of the Saarland at the federal level	Henrik Eitel	October 30, 2019
Saxony	Saxon State Chancellery	Minister of State for Federal Affairs and the Media and Head of the State Chancellery	Oliver Schenk	18th December 2017
Saxony-Anhalt	State Chancellery and Ministry of Culture	Head of the State Chancellery and Minister of Culture	Rainer Robra	May 17, 2002
Schleswig-Holstein	The Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein - State Chancellery	State Secretary and Head of the State Chancellery	Dirk Schrödter	June 28, 2017
Thuringia	Thuringian State Chancellery	Minister for Culture, Federal and European Affairs and Head of the State Chancellery	Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff	4th March 2020

¹In Bavaria, the position of (political) head of the State Chancellery was usually held by a Minister of State. In addition, above the department head level, there is the (administrative) head of the State Chancellery with the rank of State Councilor.

Tasks of the CdS

The CdS is one of the most important - often even the most important - employees of the Prime Minister . He belongs to the "strategic center" of the informal network, which serves the head of government as an early warning system and influencing instrument and chairs the meetings of the civil servants in preparation for the meetings of the state cabinet.

The tasks of a CdS correspond in many respects to those of a head of the Federal Chancellery :

Staff functions for the head of government (especially political planning and public relations),
Office function for the government as a whole (especially cabinet and state parliament matters),
Department coordination.

If no ministers or state secretaries have been appointed for federal and European affairs, the CdS often also take on these areas of responsibility, which is usually reflected in the official title.

CdS meetings

The heads of the state and senate chancelleries meet four times a year for conferences (“CdS meetings”), at which the conferences of the state heads of government are prepared. Two of these CdS conferences take place under the leadership of the head of the Federal Chancellery; they serve to prepare the twice-yearly meetings of the state heads of government with the Federal Chancellor .

Individual evidence

^ Karl-Rudolf Korte , Martin Florack, Timo Grunden: Regieren in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Structures, styles and decisions 1990 to 2006. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-14301-8 , pp. 120f.

[1] Karl-Rudolf Korte , Martin Florack, Timo Grunden: Regieren in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Structures, styles and decisions 1990 to 2006. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-14301-8 , pp. 120f.