The office of the Minister President is known as the State Chancellery (German: Staatskanzlei), and is located in the capital of Hanover, along with the rest of the cabinet departments.

[4][5] An alternate English translation is Premier, the title given to heads of state governments in other federal systems such as Australia, Canada and South Africa.

Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf, who went on to become Lower Saxony's first Minister President, was a fervent advocate of the merger towards the British military authorities.

[14] According to the Lower Saxony Constitution, the Minister President is the effective leader of the State Government, being responsible for the determination and formulation of policy guidelines.

Additionally, the Minister President also represents the State of Lower Saxony externally and exercises the right of clemency in individual criminal cases.

[18] Furthermore, the Minister President signs treaties made by the State of Lower Saxony and has to be consulted by other cabinet members prior to the start of any negotiations.

[20] Meetings of the Cabinet traditionally take place in the guesthouse of the Lower Saxony Government, located close to the Hanover Zoological Gardens.

[23] As the leader of one of Germany's territorially largest and most populous states, the Minister President of Lower Saxony has traditionally been a major player in federal politics: The state's first Minister President, Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf often used the Bundesrat as a forum to oppose the policies of the Adenauer government.

Alfred Kubel, one of Kopf's successors, played a major role in negotiating a compromise between all German states on the creation of a national fiscal transfer mechanism (Länderfinanzausgleich).

Minister President Ernst Albrecht, contrary to prevailing majority opinion in his own party, advocated and voted for the ratification of the treaties around which Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik was centred.