Germany's Ursula von der Leyen was elected to be the next president of the European Commission on Tuesday with a slim majority, creating history as the first female chief executive of the European Union. The clear outcome of the vote also helped avert a political crisis for the world's largest trading bloc. 

She was voted in by a narrow majority of 383 out of 733 votes cast by members of the the European Parliament, only nine votes more than the necessary 374-vote mark. Had her nomination - without objection from any of the 28 EU member state governments - been shot down, Brussels would be deep in uncharted political waters. 

The mother of seven and Germany's first female defense minister, who said ahead the vote she would resign her office, thanked lawmakers with a smile and said: "The task ahead of us humbles me. It's a big responsibility and my work starts now." 

Her election was preceded by good news on Tuesday as a barrage of politicians, including senior EU lawmakers, threw their support behind her in Strasbourg. But the vote in the seat of the EU legislature was a secret ballot, potentially enabling lawmakers to break from official lines. 

Ursula von der Leyen was born and brought up in Brussels, Belgium, where her father once served as a senior officer in the EU. She will, upon taking office in November, oversee the EU's executive branch of around 32,000 staff in her birth place and represent the bloc with a total GDP of 18.75 trillion U.S. dollars in 2018. 

As a trained gynecologist, she is fluent in English, French and German, and she made a point of that by speaking the three languages in one bloc speech on Tuesday morning to EU lawmakers, in a last bid to win their support.

Kramp-Karrenbauer to become the next German defense minister

Ursula von der Leyen, who has served as Germany's defense minister since 2013, will step down, and according to an official statement on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's favored successor and the head of her CDU party will become the country's new defense minister.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, best known to Germans as "AKK," will be appointed on Wednesday during a handover in Berlin.

Before Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is widely seen as the chancellor's chosen heir, was announced as the new minister, Merkel had said there would be a "very fast replacement."

"The defense ministry, the defense minister, hold command and military authority. We cannot leave this post empty for long," she said.

It will be the first ministerial post for Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was born in Saarland, near the French border, and has become a leading figure in German politics.

Sometimes called "mini-Merkel," she has been poised to take over as chancellor since becoming CDU chief in December after Merkel announced she would not seek another term when her current one ends in 2021.

However, the 56-year-old's appointment to the difficult post on Tuesday evening came as a surprise to some, after she came under strong criticism for the CDU's poor results in May's European Parliament election.