The president of Germany, officially titled the federal president of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is , with being added in international correspondence; the official English title is president of the Federal Republic of Germany is the head of state of Germany. The current officeholder is Frank-Walter Steinmeier who was elected on 12 February 2017 and re-elected on 13 February 2022. He is currently serving his second five-year-term, which began on 19 March 2022.
Under the 1949 constitution (Basic Law) Germany has a parliamentary system of government in which the chancellor is the head of government (the title prime minister is most common for this role in other countries). The president has a ceremonial role as figurehead, but also has the right and duty to act politically. They can give direction to general political and societal debates and have some important "reserve powers" in case of political instability (such as those provided for by Article 81 of the Basic Law). The president also holds the prerogative to grant pardons on behalf of the federation. The German presidents, who can be elected to two consecutive five-year terms, have wide discretion about how they exercise their official duties.German constitutional court: BVerfG, – 2 BvE 4/13–10 June 2014, No. 28
Under Article 59 (1) of the Basic Law (German Constitution), the president represents the Federal Republic of Germany in matters of international law, concludes treaties with foreign states on its behalf and accredits diplomats. Furthermore, all federal laws must be signed by the president before they can come into effect; presidents may veto a law if they believe it to violate the constitution.
The president's actions and public appearances represent the state itself, its existence, legitimacy, and unity. The president enjoys a higher ranking at official functions than the chancellor. The president's role is integrative and includes the control function of upholding the law and the constitution. It is a matter of political tradition – not legal restrictions – that the president generally does not comment routinely on issues in the news, particularly when there is some controversy among the political parties. This distance from day-to-day politics and daily governmental issues allows the president to be a source of clarification, to influence public debate, voice criticism, offer suggestions, and make proposals. In order to exercise this power, they traditionally act above party politics.
Election
The president is elected by the Federal Convention, a non-permanent constitutional body, which has no other function. The Federal convention consists of all members of the Bundestag (the federal parliament) and an exactly equal number of state electors, which are distributed onto the sixteen german states in proportion to their population. The state electors are elected by the state parliaments ad hoc. The president is elected for a term of five years; subsequent re-election is possible once.
The German constitution, the Basic Law, requires that the convention be convened no later than 30 days before the scheduled expiry of the sitting president's term or 30 days after a premature expiry of a president's term (by resignation, death or impeachment). The body is convened and chaired by the president of the Bundestag. From 1979 to 2009, all these conventions were held on 23 May, the anniversary of the foundation of the Federal Republic in 1949. The resignation of Horst Köhler in 2010, which necessitated an early meeting of the Federal Convention, brought this tradition to an end.
The Federal Convention votes by secret ballot and without debate. In the first two rounds of the election, the candidate who achieves an absolute majority of all members of the Federal Convention is elected. If, after two rounds of voting, no single candidate has received this level of support, a plurality of votes cast is sufficient in further rounds of voting.
The result of the election is often determined by party politics. In most cases, the candidate of the majority party or coalition in the Bundestag is considered to be the likely winner. However, as the members of the Federal Convention vote by secret ballot and are free to vote against their party's candidate, some presidential elections were considered open or too-close-to-call beforehand because of relatively balanced majority positions. There have also been cases, when the governing coalition's parties could not agree on one candidate and endorsed different people, as they did in 1969, when Gustav Heinemann won by only six votes on the third ballot. In other cases, elections have turned out to be much closer than expected. For example, in 2010, Chrsitian Wulff was expected to win on the first ballot, as the parties supporting him (CDU, CSU and FDP) had a stable absolute majority in the Federal Convention. Nevertheless, he failed to win a majority in the first and second ballots, while his main opponent Joachim Gauck had an unexpectedly strong showing. In the end, Wulff obtained a majority in the third ballot. If the opposition has turned in a strong showing in recent state elections, it can potentially have enough support to even defeat the candidate of the governing coalition; this happened in the elections in 1979 and 2004.
List of elections Election Date Site Ballots Winner(endorsing parties) Electoral votes(percentage) Runner-up(endorsing parties) Electoral votes(percentage) 1st Federal Convention 12 September 1949 Bonn 2 Theodor Heuss(FDP, CDU, CSU) 416 (51.7%) Kurt Schumacher(SPD) 312 (38.8%) 2nd Federal Convention 17 July 1954 West Berlin 1 Theodor Heuss(FDP, CDU, CSU, SPD) 871 (85.6%) Alfred Weber(KPD) 12 (1.2%) 3rd Federal Convention 1 July 1959 West Berlin 2 Heinrich Lübke(CDU, CSU) 526 (50.7%) Carlo Schmid(SPD) 386 (37.2%) 4th Federal Convention 1 July 1964 West Berlin 1 Heinrich Lübke(CDU, CSU, SPD) 710 (68.1%) Ewald Bucher(FDP) 123 (11.8%) 5th Federal Convention 5 March 1969 West Berlin 3 Gustav Heinemann(SPD, FDP) 512 (49.4%) Gerhard Schröder(CDU, CSU, NPD) 506 (48.8%) 6th Federal Convention 15 May 1974 Bonn 1 Walter Scheel(FDP, SPD) 530 (51.2%) Richard von Weizsäcker(CDU, CSU) 498 (48.1%) 7th Federal Convention 23 May 1979 Bonn 1 Karl Carstens(CDU, CSU) 528 (51%) Annemarie Renger(SPD) 431 (41.6%) 8th Federal Convention 23 May 1984 Bonn 1 Richard von Weizsäcker(CDU, CSU, FDP, SPD) 832 (80%) Luise Rinser(Greens) 68 (6.5%) 9th Federal Convention 23 May 1989 Bonn 1 Richard von Weizsäcker(CDU, CSU, FDP, SPD) 881 (84.9%) None 108 (10.4%) no-votes 10th Federal Convention 23 May 1994 Berlin 3 Roman Herzog(CDU, CSU) 696 (52.6%) Johannes Rau(SPD) 605 (45.7%) 11th Federal Convention 23 May 1999 Berlin 2 Johannes Rau(SPD, Greens) 690 (51.6%) Dagmar Schipanski(CDU, CSU) 572 (42.8%) 12th Federal Convention 23 May 2004 Berlin 1 Horst Köhler(CDU, CSU, FDP) 604 (50.1%) Gesine Schwan(SPD, Greens) 589 (48.9%) 13th Federal Convention 23 May 2009 Berlin 1 Horst Köhler(CDU, CSU, FDP, FW) 613 (50.1%) Gesine Schwan(SPD, Greens) 503 (41.1%) 14th Federal Convention 30 June 2010 Berlin 3 Christian Wulff(CDU, CSU, FDP) 625 (50.2%) Joachim Gauck(SPD, Greens) 494 (39.7%) 15th Federal Convention 18 March 2012 Berlin 1 Joachim Gauck(CDU, CSU, FDP, SPD, Greens, Free Voters, SSW) 991 (79.9%) Beate Klarsfeld(The Left) 126 (10.2%) 16th Federal Convention 12 February 2017 Berlin 1 Frank-Walter Steinmeier(SPD, CDU, CSU, Greens, FDP, SSW) 931 (74.3%) Christoph Butterwegge(The Left) 128 (10.2%) 17th Federal Convention 13 February 2022 Berlin 1 Frank-Walter Steinmeier(SPD, Greens, FDP, CDU, CSU, SSW) 1045 (72.7%) Max Otte(AfD) 140 (9.74%) 18th Federal Convention 30 January 2027 Berlin
Qualifications The office of president is open to all Germans who are entitled to vote in Bundestag elections and have reached the age of 40, but no one may serve more than two consecutive five-year terms. As yet (2025), only five presidents (Heuss, Lübke, von Weizsäcker, Köhler and Steinmeier (in office)) have been elected for a second term and only two of them (Heuss and von Weizsäcker) completed those terms, while Lübke and Köhler resigned during their second term. The president must not be a member of the federal government or of a legislature at either the federal or state level.
Oath After taking office the president must take the following oath, stipulated by Article 56 of the Basic Law, in a joint session of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat (it is the only event that demands such a joint session constitutionally). The religious references may optionally be omitted.
I swear that I will dedicate my efforts to the well-being of the German people, promote their welfare, protect them from harm, uphold and defend the Basic Law and the laws of the Federation, perform my duties conscientiously and do justice to all. (So help me God.)
German constitutional law does not consider oaths of office as constitutive but only as affirmative. This means that the president does not have to take the oath at the moment of entering office in order to be able to exercise its constitutional powers. In practice, the oath is usually administered during the first days or weeks of a president's term on a date convenient for a joint session of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. Nevertheless, in theory a persistent refusal to take the oath is considered to be an impeachable offence by legal scholars. If a president is re-elected for a second consecutive term, he does not take the oath again.
Duties and functions
The president is involved in the formation of the Federal Government and remains in close cooperation with it. Basically, the president is free to act on his own discretion. However, according to Article 58 of the German constitution, the decrees, and directives of the president require the countersignature of the chancellor or the corresponding federal minister in charge of the respective field of politics. This rule ensures the coherence of government action. There is no need for a countersignature if the president proposes, appoints, or dismisses the chancellor; convenes or dissolves the Bundestag according to Article 63; declares a legislative state of emergency; calls on a chancellor and ministers to remain in office after the end of a chancellor's term until a successor is elected; or exercises his right to pardon on behalf of the federation - as these are exclusive powers of the president.
Therefore, the president also receives the chancellor regularly for talks on current policy issues. German presidents also hold talks with individual federal ministers and other senior officials at their own discretion. The "Head of the Office of the President" represents the will and views of the president in the meetings of the Federal Cabinet and reports back to the president.
The president's most prominent powers and duties include:
Proposing the chancellor to the Bundestag Appointing and dismissing the chancellor and their cabinet ministers Dissolving the Bundestag under certain circumstances Declaring the legislative state of emergency under certain circumstances Convening the Bundestag Signing and promulgating laws or vetoing them under certain circumstances Appointing and dismissing federal judges, federal civil servants, and commissioned and non-commissioned officers of the Armed Forces Exercising the power to pardon individual offenders on behalf of the Federation Awarding honors on behalf of the Federation Representing Germany at home and abroad
Appointment of the Federal Government