policy. In 1951 the Foreign Office was reestablished in West Germany, but Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was required to hold the office of Foreign Minister until the Western powers restored sovereignty to West Germany in 1955. Then, Heinrich von Brentano di Tremezzo succeeded as foreign minister in 1955. In 1990, the GDR ceased to exist as a separate state and its territory was reunited with West Germany. From the 1966 Grand Coalition government of Kurt Georg Kiesinger onwards, the office has been held by a member of the smaller partner in coalitions. Therefore, the Foreign Minister also mostly holds the office of Vice Chancellor of Germany, although this has become less common in recent years - neither of the two most recent Foreign Ministers, Heiko Maas and Annalena Baerbock, have been Vice Chancellor, with the Vice Chancellorship being held by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz during Maas' tenure, and by Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck during Baerbock's. List of officeholders German Reich (1871–1945) State Secretaries for Foreign Affairs (1871–1919) Ministers of Foreign Affairs (1919–1945) Political Party: German Democratic Republic (1949–1990) Ministers of Foreign Affairs Political Party: Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present) Ministers of Foreign Affairs, since 1951 Political Party: References External links auswärtiges-amt.de Lists of government ministers of Germany 1871 establishments in Germany Germany