Federal Minister of Finance (Germany)
Encyclopedia
The Federal Ministry of Finance is part of the German federal government and is responsible for managing the federal budget
Budget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
. The finance minister is the only minister who can veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
a decision of the government if it would lead to additional expenditure. The current minister of finance is Wolfgang Schäuble
Wolfgang Schäuble
Wolfgang Schäuble is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union , currently serving as the Federal Minister of Finance in the Second Cabinet Merkel....
, of the CDU
Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
.
History
Following the Unification of GermanyUnification of Germany
The formal unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871 at the Versailles Palace's Hall of Mirrors in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm of Prussia as Emperor Wilhelm of the German...
, fiscal policy was predominantly the domain of the various states of Germany
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
. The states were responsible for all direct taxation, and the federal government received indirect contributions from the states. Matters of fiscal policy at the federal level was the responsibility of the Chancellor's Office. However, in 1879, the Imperial Treasury (Reichsschatzamt) was founded. It was initially headed by an Under-Secretary of State, and eventually by a Secretary of State. It became a federal ministry, the Reichsministerium der Finanzen, headed by a federal minister, in 1919, and was renamed the Bundesministerium der Finanzen in 1949.
Since 1999, the Air Ministry Building in Berlin has been the headquarters of the ministry.