German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote on Monday, spelling the effective end of his troubled government and putting Europe's biggest economy on the path to elections on February 23.

Scholz had called the vote, expecting to lose it, weeks after his coalition collapsed.

Later Monday he asked President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to dissolve the legislature soon and ask voters to head back to the ballot box.

Although the centre-left chancellor continues in a caretaker role and with a minority in parliament, the political turmoil threatens months of paralysis until a new coalition government is formed.

Embattled Scholz, 66, lags badly in the polls behind conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz who heads the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.

After more than three years at the helm, Scholz was plunged into crisis when his unruly three-party coalition collapsed on November 6, the day Donald Trump won re-election to the White House.

Berlin faces major geopolitical challenges as it confronts Russia over the Ukraine war and as Trump's looming return heightens uncertainty over NATO and trade ties.

Those threats were at the centre of a heated debate between Scholz, Merz and other party leaders ahead of the vote in the lower house, in which 207 MPs expressed confidence in Scholz against 394 who did not, with 116 abstentions. (AFP)