In Austrian politics, the Federal Chancellery (, abbreviated ; historically also and ) is the ministry led by the chancellor. Since the establishment of the First Austrian Republic in 1918, the Chancellery building has served as the venue for the sessions of the Austrian cabinet. It is located on the Ballhausplatz in the centre of Vienna, vis-à-vis the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Like Downing Street, Quai d'Orsay or – formerly – Wilhelmstrasse, the address has become a synecdoche for governmental power. Responsibilities The chancellery's primary function is to align the policies and public relations of the Federal Government. It represents the executive on federal level in matters of the Constitution of Austria and in international courts. It is also in charge of women's rights and gender equality, civil service, public administration and management, exercised by Ines Stilling in the rank of a Federal Minister and member of the Austrian cabinet. It is further responsible for national security – if not in the Federal Ministry of the Interior's area of competence –, information privacy and information society, mass media affairs, news conferences and photojournalism, OECD relations, bioethics, and minority rights. History Next to Hofburg Palace, residence of the Holy Roman Emperors and Habsburg Monarchs, the Baroque chancellery building designed by the Genoese architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt for chancellor Friedrich Karl von Schönborn was inaugurated in 1719 as Geheime Hofkanzlei, concerned with the foreign policy of Emperor Charles VI. From 1753 until 1792 Prince Wenzel Anton of Kaunitz-Rietberg resided here as State Chancellor of Empress Maria Theresa, Emperor Joseph II and Emperor Leopold II. In the 1760s, Kaunitz had the building significantly enlarged according to plans by Nicolò Pacassi. While Napoleon's troops occupied Vienna, Prince Klemens von Metternich was appointed Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire in 1809 and moved into the chancellery building with his family to live here during the winter months. In 1814/15 his residence served as venue of the Vienna Congress. After the 1848 revolutions, Minister-President Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg took his seat at the chancellery and made it the centre of his rule. Until the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918, the building was the seat of the k.u.k. Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 1867 also Chairmen of the Ministers' Council for Common Affairs arbitrating between the Cisleithanian (Austrian) and Transleithanian (Hungarian) minister-presidents. During the July Crisis of 1914, the declaration of war against Serbia was