The German Chancellery (German: Bundeskanzleramt) is the executive office of the Chancellor, the head of the German federal government. The chief of the Chancellery (Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes) holds the rank of either a Secretary of State (Staatssekretär) or a Federal Minister (Bundesminister). The chief's primary function is to assist the Chancellor in coordinating the activities of the Federal Government, and may be compared to the White House Chief of Staff. The current chief of the Chancellery is Ronald Pofalla. The Chancellery is also the name of the building that houses the personal offices of the Chancellor and the Chancellery staff.

The current Chancellery building (opened in the spring of 2001) was designed by Charlotte Frank and Axel Schultes and was built by a joint venture of Royal Bam Group's subsidiary Wayss&Freytag and the Spanish Acciona from concrete and glass in an essentially postmodern style, though some elements of modernist style are evident. Occupying 12,000 square meters (129,166 square feet), it is also one of the largest government headquarters buildings in the world. By comparison, the new Chancellery building is eight times the size of the White House. A semi official Chancellor apartment is located on the top floor of the building. The 200 square meters two-room flat was only occupied by Gerhard Schröder. Mrs. Merkel uses her private apartment in Berlin. Because of its distinctive but controversial architecture, journalists, tourist guides and some locals refer to the buildings as Kohllosseum (as a mix of collosseum and former chancellor Helmut Kohl under whom it was built), Waschmaschine (laundry machine; because of the round-shaped windows and its cubic form), or Elefantenklo (elephant loo).

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