You could think of the chancellor of Germany as the equivalent to the Prime Minister of the UK: elected by parliament and holds the real power in the country.

You could think of the chancellor of Germany as the equivalent to the Prime Minister of the UK: elected by parliament and holds the real power in the country. The president of Germany would be more like the Queen in the UK: head of state with mainly ceremonial powers, but doesn't take much of a roll in actually running the country. The chancellor was originally a subordinate position to the King of Prussia and later the German Kaiser. After 1918, the Kaiser was replaced by the president, who had a much more diminished role than the Kaiser did, and the chancellor undisputedly became the most powerful position. In the US, the president is both of those positions rolled into one, with the exception of being elected by the states rather than by Congress.