The
President of GermanyThe 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...
(
Bundespräsident) is the titular head of state of the Federal Republic of
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. The president's tasks are mostly ceremonial, but for the signing of all new federal laws before they go into effect. In practice however, all presidents have had informal influence on politics and society but mostly in a non-partisan way.
The president is not elected directly by the voters but by a special Federal Convention (
BundesversammlungThe Federal Convention is a special body in the institutional system of Germany, convened solely for the purpose of electing the German Federal President every five years....
) which is assembled every five years for this task alone.
The
President of GermanyThe 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...
(
Bundespräsident) is the titular head of state of the Federal Republic of
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
. The president's tasks are mostly ceremonial, but for the signing of all new federal laws before they go into effect. In practice however, all presidents have had informal influence on politics and society but mostly in a non-partisan way.
The president is not elected directly by the voters but by a special Federal Convention (
BundesversammlungThe Federal Convention is a special body in the institutional system of Germany, convened solely for the purpose of electing the German Federal President every five years....
) which is assembled every five years for this task alone. This body consists of the 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...
and an equal number of members selected by the
sixteen federal state parliamentsGermany 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...
.
The election date is currently set on May 23 every five years in the national capital
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...
. May 23 is the date the German Grundgesetz was accepted in 1949, but the date will be changed when a President leaves office before the completion of their term (as has happened before). Of the 1,206 members only 549 belonged to the parties which controlled the federal government - the Social Democrats (
SPDThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
) and the German Green Party. Also in their camp were the 31 members of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). The opposition parties, the Christian Democrats (
CDUThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
/
CSUThe Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It was founded as a continuation of the Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union ,...
) and Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), however, had a majority of 624 members because they commanded more seats in the federal states. One member belonged to a regional party; one was non-aligned.
Each camp nominated a candidate for the job, although the outcome of the election is very predictable because the members of the convention normally vote with strict party loyalty. As the majority of the opposition was not overwhelming (624 of 604 needed), "dissident" members could cause a surprise.
The CDU/CSU and FDP nominated
Horst KöhlerHorst Köhler is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union, and the current President of Germany...
. He was head of the IMF in Washington, DC, and before that, in the eighties and nineties, he was a senior official and was involved in negotiating both the
German reunificationGerman reunification is the process in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and Berlin was united into a single city-state. The start of this process is commonly referred to by former citizens of the GDR as die Wende...
treaty and the
Maastricht TreatyThe Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht, the Netherlands after final negotiations on 9 December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993 during the Delors Commission. It created the European Union and led to the creation...
on behalf of the German government. He is said to be rather modest but independently minded.
The SPD and Greens had nominated
Gesine SchwanGesine Schwan is a German political science professor and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The party has nominated her twice as a candidate for the federal presidential elections. On 23 May 2004, she was defeated by the Christian Democrat and current president Horst Köhler...
, currently head of the
Viadrina European UniversityViadrina European University is a university located at Frankfurt in Brandenburg, Germany. It is also known as the University of Frankfurt . The city is on the Oder River, which marks the border between Germany and Poland...
in
Frankfurt (Oder)Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
. She is a renowned political scientist who also has been active for a long time in politics for the SPD - but has not always been in line with the party.
Since 1949, all eight presidents have been men, six members of the CDU or FDP, and two members of the SPD. Once in office, the President can be subsequently re-elected only once. The previous president
Johannes RauJohannes Rau was a German politician of the SPD. He was President of Germany from 1 July 1999, until 30 June 2004, and Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1978 to 1998.-Education and work:...
(SPD) cited personal reasons for his decision not to run for a second term. Rau died in 2006.
Köhler won in the first voting round, receiving an immediate absolute majority of 604 (50.1%). Schwan won 589 votes, apparently attracting opposition voters.
| Round |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
Party |
| First round |
Horst KöhlerHorst Köhler is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union, and the current President of Germany...
|
604 |
50.1 % |
CDU |
Gesine SchwanGesine Schwan is a German political science professor and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The party has nominated her twice as a candidate for the federal presidential elections. On 23 May 2004, she was defeated by the Christian Democrat and current president Horst Köhler...
|
589 |
48.9 % |
SPD |