The cabinet served as a caretaker government following the elections on 22 September 2013; which saw the removal of the Free Democratic Party from the Bundestag.

On 3 March 2011, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg stepped down as Defense Minister following the discovery of plagiarized content in his doctoral dissertation.

On 10 May 2011, Rainer Brüderle was elected as the FDP's parliamentary leader and resigned his position as Economics Minister.

On 16 May 2012, Merkel requested that President Joachim Gauck dismiss Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen after the CDU's defeat in the North Rhine-Westphalia state election.

On 5 February 2013, Annette Schavan was stripped of her doctorate by the University of Düsseldorf due to alleged plagiarism in her PhD thesis.