All former German Chancellors have been immortalised in paintings that hang in the gallery on the first floor of the Chancellery. The painting of Konrad Adenauer is by Hans Jürgen Kallmann, who was famous for his portaits of well-known personalities.
Photo: Bundesregierung/Gathmann, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022
Günter Rittner preferred to paint actors and opera singers. But he also captured politicians like Walter Scheel and Ludwig Erhard on canvas – the latter with his trademark cigar
Photo: Bundesregierung/Wienke, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022
Rittner also painted the portrait of Kurt-Georg Kiesinger
Photo: Bundesregierung/Gräfingholt,© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022
The portrait of Willy Brandt was painted by Oswald Petersen, who was born in Düsseldorf. The painting of the first SPD Chancellor is Petersen's best-known portrait
Photo: Bundesregierung/Wienke, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022
It was Helmut Schmidt who came up with the idea of a portrait gallery of former Chancellors. He commissioned this portrait by the East German painter Bernhard Heisig in 1986, that is before Germany's reunification
Photo: Bundesregierung/Reineke, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022
Albrecht Gehse, a pupil of Bernhard Heisig, was chosen to immortalise Helmut Kohl. The "Chancellor of Reunification" sat for the portrait in 2002, four years after the end of his term of office
Photo: Bundesregierung/Kühler, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022
Gerhard Schröder chose Jörg Immendorff to paint his portrait while he was still in office. The painting was hung in the gallery in January 2007 – the last addition for the time being
Photo: Photo: Federal Government/Steins, © The Estate of Jörg Immendorff, Courtesy Galerie Michael Werner Märkisch Wilmersdorf, Köln & New York