The
Federal Convention (also known as the Federal Assembly; ) is a special body in the institutional system of
GermanyPolitics of Germany take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Chancellor is the head of government, and of a plurality multi-party system. Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament and the Bundesrat as the representation of the...
, convened solely for the purpose of electing the German Federal President (
BundespräsidentThe President of Germany is Germany's head of state. The position is largely a ceremonial one, with the president acting in accordance with the advice and directives of the legislature...
) every five years.
The
Bundesversammlung includes the entire membership of the
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
, and an equal number of state delegates selected by the
stateGermany is a Federal Republic consisting of sixteen states, known in German as . Since is also the German word for "country", the term is commonly used colloquially, as it is more specific, though technically incorrect within the corpus of German law.The citizens of the states form the nation...
or 'Länder' parliaments specifically for this purpose, proportional to their population.
The
Federal Convention (also known as the Federal Assembly; ) is a special body in the institutional system of
GermanyPolitics of Germany take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Chancellor is the head of government, and of a plurality multi-party system. Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament and the Bundesrat as the representation of the...
, convened solely for the purpose of electing the German Federal President (
BundespräsidentThe President of Germany is Germany's head of state. The position is largely a ceremonial one, with the president acting in accordance with the advice and directives of the legislature...
) every five years.
The
Bundesversammlung includes the entire membership of the
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
, and an equal number of state delegates selected by the
stateGermany is a Federal Republic consisting of sixteen states, known in German as . Since is also the German word for "country", the term is commonly used colloquially, as it is more specific, though technically incorrect within the corpus of German law.The citizens of the states form the nation...
or 'Länder' parliaments specifically for this purpose, proportional to their population. The Länder representatives are not solely politicians: it is customary for the some states to nominate
celebritiesA celebrity is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. The desire to be notable is implied by some to be a part of Western culture and more specifically the...
or other prominent and notable people. From the time of their nomination until the closing of the session of the Federal Convention its members enjoy parliamentary immunity with regard to prosecution by public authorities in very much the same way as members of the
BundestagThe Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
do.
Since 1979, the
Bundesversammlung has traditionally met on May 23, the anniversary of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany and the coming-into-force of the
Basic LawThe Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is the constitution of Germany. It was formally approved on 8 May 1949, and, with the signature of the Allies, came into effect on 23 May 1949, as the constitution of West Germany....
in 1949. It is chaired by the
President of the BundestagThe President of the Bundestag presides over the sessions of the Bundestag, the parliament of Germany, with functions similar to that of a speaker in other countries. In the German order of precedence, his office is ranked second after the President and before the Chancellor...
and is dissolved once the elected President declares that he accepts his election, which decision he can delay for up to two days (however, no president has ever done so).
Each member of the
Bundesversammlung may suggest candidates for the office of the Federal President. In practice however only the candidates designated in advance by the parliamentary groups are suggested.
The procedure of the
electionAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and...
of the
Bundespräsident consists of a maximum of three secret votes by written
ballotA ballot is a device used to record choices made by voters. Each voter uses one ballot, and ballots are not shared. In the simplest elections, a ballot may be a simple scrap of paper on which each voter writes in the name of a candidate, but governmental elections use pre-printed to protect the...
. If one of the first two votes ends with an
absolute majorityAn absolute majority or majority of the entire membership is a voting basis which usually requires that more than half of all the members of a group must vote in favour of a proposition in order for it to be passed...
for one of the candidates, this candidate is elected immediately. If the first two votes do not lead to an absolute majority, a plurality is sufficient in the third and final vote. According to the
GrundgesetzThe term basic law is used in some places as an alternative to "constitution", implying it is a temporary but necessary measure without formal enactment of constitution. A Basic Law is either a codified constitution, or in countries with uncodified constitutions, a law given to have constitution...
, the President is elected without a debate at the Federal Convention. The candidates are usually nominated by one or more parties, but do not generally run a campaign. The candidate whose party or parties have the majority in the Bundestag is considered to be the likely winner and, in the main, has achieved the necessary majority. The Speaker of the
Bundestag closes the session of the
Bundesversammlung once the elected candidate accepts.
The last assembly of the
Bundesversammlung was held on May 23, 2009, when
Horst KöhlerHorst Köhler is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union, and the current President of Germany...
was reelected as president by the minimal necessary majority of 613 out of 1224 votes.
On the 12th September 1949, the first
Bundesversammlung met in
BonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 20 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990...
. From 1954-1969 the
Bundesversammlung was convened at the Ostpreußenhalle in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
, leading to protests from the
German Democratic RepublicThe German Democratic Republic was a Communist state that originated from the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin...
on each occasion it met. As a consequence, on 5 March 1969, the Soviet Union overflew the venue (and West Berlin) with MiG-21 war planes. From 1974 to 1989, the
Bundesversammlung met in the Beethovenhalle in Bonn. Since 1994 the meeting place has been the Reichstag building in Berlin.
External links