BERLIN — Angela Merkel was elected today as Germany's first female chancellor, taking power at the helm of an unwieldy alliance of the right and left that now officially has the job of turning around Europe's biggest economy.

Lawmakers voted 397 to 202, with 12 abstentions, to make Merkel Germany's eighth leader since World War II, succeeding Gerhard Schroeder, whose seven-year government of Social Democrats and Greens was ousted by voters Sept. 18.

Schroeder was the first to walk over and congratulate a smiling Merkel after the vote was announced.

"Dear Mrs. Merkel, you are the first democratically elected female head of government in Germany," parliament president Norbert Lammert said. "That is a strong signal for women and certainly for some men, too. I wish you strength, God's blessing and also some enjoyment in your high office."

Merkel will need all the strength she can muster as her government, made up of politicians who until a few weeks ago were partisan opponents, tackles chronically high unemployment, currently at 11 percent, and lagging economic growth.

President Horst Koehler officially named Merkel as chancellor at Berlin's Charlottenburg palace, ahead of her return to parliament for a swearing-in ceremony.

"Congratulations — I wish you great strength and God's blessing every day," Koehler said.

"Thank you very much, Mr. President," Merkel replied.

Today's vote comes six months after Schroeder announced that he was seeking national elections a year early, plunging Germany into political uncertainty, and more than two months after an inconclusive election forced Germany's biggest parties into talks on a so-called "grand coalition" between Merkel's conservatives and the center-left Social Democratic Party.

The difficulties that could face the coalition were apparent in the vote, with at least 51 members of the 448-member coalition voting against her in the secret ballot.

Neither the Social Democrats nor Merkel's conservatives got a majority at the polls for their preferred coalitions with smaller parties, forcing them to work together.

By taking the Social Democrats on board, Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union has been forced into awkward compromises on taxes and welfare-state reforms that some fear could undermine the coalition and slow efforts to fix a lagging economy.

However, the Social Democrats' parliamentary leader said he was convinced the new government will succeed.

"For that we require a strong chancellor," said Peter Struck, defense minister under Schroeder

. "The foundation stone will be set with the election of Ms. Merkel."

Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, along with the center-left Social Democrats, hold a commanding 448 of 614 seats in parliament.

In coming to a consensus for the coalition, Merkel bargained away key campaign pledges such as limiting union power in regional wage negotiations and accepted a Social Democrat demand for a "rich tax" on top earners.