The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is a ministry in the German cabinet

Cabinet of Germany

The Cabinet of Germany is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Chancellor and the cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's organization are set down in articles 62 to 69 of the Basic Law.-Nomination:...

. It is headquartered in Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

, with an office in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

.

Functions and Responsibilities

The Ministry of Education and Research provides funding for research projects and institutions and regulates general educational policy. However, a large part of educational policy in Germany is decided at the state

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...

level, strongly limiting the influence of the ministry.

History

The ministry was founded in 1955 as Federal Ministry for Atomic Issues, concentrating on research in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The ministry was renamed in 1962 to Federal Ministry of Scientific Research, with a broader scope. It was renamed again, to Federal Ministry of Education and Science, in 1969, a name that it kept until its merger with the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology in 1994.

External links

• Official English website