List of the Prime Ministers of North Rhine-Westphalia

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Term of office	Prime Minister	Political party		cabinet	Remarks	image
May 1945 - January 21, 1947	Heinrich Drake		independent	Cabinet Drake VIII	appointed (by the United Kingdom ) at the same time Prime Minister of Schaumburg-Lippe

Term of office	Prime Minister	Political party		cabinet	Remarks	image
August 30, 1946 - April 19, 1947	Rudolf Amelunxen		independent, from 1947 center	Cabinet Amelunxen I , II	appointed (by United Kingdom )
June 16, 1947 - February 19, 1956	Karl Arnold		CDU	Cabinet Arnold I , II , III	Managing director from July 27 to September 15, 1950, voted out by a constructive vote of no confidence
February 20, 1956 - July 20, 1958	Fritz Steinhoff		SPD	Steinhoff cabinet
July 21, 1958 - December 7, 1966	Franz Meyers		CDU	Meyer's cabinet I , II , III	voted out by a constructive vote of no confidence
December 8, 1966 - September 19, 1978	Heinz Kühn		SPD	Cabinet Kühn I , II , III
September 20, 1978 - May 26, 1998	Johannes Rau		SPD	Cabinet Rau I , II , III , IV , V
May 27, 1998 - October 20, 2002	Wolfgang Clement		SPD	Cabinet Clement I , II	Resignation from office by taking over the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor
October 21, 2002 - November 5, 2002	Michael Vesper		GREEN	Cabinet Clement II	provisional
November 6, 2002 - June 21, 2005	Peer Steinbruck		SPD	Steinbrück Cabinet	Loss of office due to electoral defeat
June 21, 2005 - July 14, 2010	Jürgen Rüttgers		CDU	Rüttger's cabinet	managing director from June 9 to July 14, 2010, loss of office due to electoral defeat
July 14, 2010 - June 27, 2017	Hannelore Kraft		SPD	Cabinet Kraft I , II	from July 14, 2010 to June 19, 2012 in a minority government, loss of office due to electoral defeat
since June 27, 2017	Armin Laschet		CDU	Laschet cabinet