West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.

In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.

Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.

In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.

In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Germany withdrew the last of its troops in June 2021 as part of the US-led exit from Afghanistan.

Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania since 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defense in a generation," according to NATO.

Scholz was the finance minister and vice-chancellor in the previous government and is the ninth chancellor and the fourth Social Democrat to hold the office. The former mayor of Hamburg handed his center-left party the surprise win in 2021, having campaigned on stability and pragmatism. Perceived as cautious and unemotional, he has sought to show leadership following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Media-savvy Christian Lindner has been the leader of the business-oriented, neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) since 2013, inheriting a party that had just lost representation in parliament in the election. As Finance Minister during a time of multiple crises, he has been struggling to limit government spending while protecting the wealthy from tax hikes.

The vice chancellor is a member of the more moderate wing of his environmentalist party. He quickly outshone the chancellor with his open communication style, but then lost support in his attempt to implement a pragmatic wartime energy policy. The philosophy major and former author of children's books was previously Environment and Agriculture Minister in his home state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Germany's top diplomat emphasizes a "values-guided" and "feminist" foreign policy. Some months after Russia's war on Ukraine began, she has become the most popular member of the government. She has ruffled feathers by urging a tougher tone on China. Baerbock is only the second Green politician to take on the post, after Joschka Fischer in the late 1990s.

Possibly the biggest surprise in Scholz's new Cabinet, Faeser was elevated from SPD party leader in Hesse to one of Germany's biggest ministries, her first role at federal level. She has taken a tough line, especially on far-right extremism. She is the first woman to hold the office.

The virologist was a popular choice for Germans who enjoyed his outspoken appearances on TV talk shows, advocating a tough health policy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It has not all been smooth sailing for him since then. Lauterbach has vowed to tackle reforming Germany's overstretched hospital system.

Christian Lindner is said to be the face of the FDP, but his childhood friend Marco Buschmann is said to be the brain. From humble beginnings, he excelled in his legal academic career. First elected to the Bundestag in 2009, his signature issue has been protecting individual freedoms. He is not one of the conservative hawks in his party but is cautious about immigration.

The veteran Green Party politician joined the federal government after over a quarter-century in the German parliament. The first-ever German Cabinet minister with Turkish parents is a party moderate and outspoken critic of Turkish President Erdogan. He co-chaired the Green Party for close to a decade.

The ministry with the longest name has gone to the much-respected Steffi Lemke, among the handful who co-founded the Greens' East German branch in 1989. During her first spell in the Bundestag (1994-2002), she was also one of the few Green Party parliamentarians to initially oppose German participation in the Afghan war.

FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing is the party's second most powerful politician after leader Christian Lindner. He spent five years as Rhineland-Palatinate's Economy Minister in a coalition with the SPD and the Greens. Although the hugely popular €9 ticket in the summer of 2022 was his brainchild, Wissing is known mainly for refusing to implement a speed limit on German motorways.

One of only two East Germans in the new Cabinet, Klara Geywitz heads a new ministry set up at the insistence of the SPD. Housing has become an acute issue in Germany, where urban areas are fast running out of affordable housing. Geywitz's ambitious announcement that 400,000 new units would be constructed each year seems to have proved unrealistic.

Heil held the same post in the previous government. During his first year in the new government, he led the overhaul of the social security scheme, and the increase in Germany's minimum wage to €12 ($13.60) an hour.

Angela Merkel's last environment minister became Scholz's first development minister. The outspoken opponent of nuclear power is a member of several environmental organizations. As the government is failing to phase-out fossil fuels as it scrambled to replace Russian gas imports in 2022, environment and climate policy has come under fire from activists.

Stark-Watzinger was part of the party's negotiating team in coalition negotiations and is a specialist in finance and education policy. She has called for an "educational revolution" in Germany, ushering in a major digitalized overhaul of the current system. Earlier in her live, she lived in the UK for nine years.

An economist by training, Paus has served as a Member of the German Bundestag for the city-state of Berlin since 2009. She has put the fight against human rights violations against children and women at the center of her ministry's work.

Scholz's right-hand man in the Cabinet is Wolfgang Schmidt, who worked with Scholz when he was mayor of Hamburg. Chief of staff with a special ministerial brief that gives the chancellorship extra weight in the Cabinet, Schmidt's role largely involves coordinating the ministerial work of the three parties.

Claudia Roth moved into the spotlight of German cultural policy. Within the Chancellor's office, she is also responsible for DW. Former party leader Roth is one of the most prominent faces of the Greens. Most recently, the former manager of the anarchist band Ton Steine Scherben was Vice President of the Bundestag.