President of Germany

head of state of Germany

The President of Germany (German: Bundespräsident, literally: federal president) is the head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany. His functions are mostly supervising and representative, because of the negative experiences with the office of its predecessor the Reich President (Reichskanzler), who had more power than the current Federal President.

Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany
Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Logo
Incumbent
Frank-Walter Steinmeier

since 19 March 2017
StyleMr. President
(informal)
The Honourable
(formal)
His Excellency
(diplomatic)
ResidenceSchloss Bellevue (Berlin)
Villa Hammerschmidt (Bonn)
AppointerFederal Convention
Term lengthFive years
Renewable once, consecutively
Constituting instrumentBasic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
PrecursorThe Reichspräsident
Formation24 May 1949
First holderTheodor Heuss
Websitewww.bundespraesident.de

The president is elected every five years by the Bundesversammlung.

List of presidents change

  1. Theodor Heuss (FDP), 1949 – 1959
  2. Heinrich Lübke (CDU), 1959 – 1969
  3. Gustav Heinemann (SPD), 1969 – 1974
  4. Walter Scheel (FDP), 1974 – 1979
  5. Karl Carstens (CDU), 1979 – 1984
  6. Richard von Weizsäcker (CDU), 1984 – 1994
  7. Roman Herzog (CDU), 1994 – 1999
  8. Johannes Rau (SPD), 1999 – 2004
  9. Horst Köhler (CDU), 2004 – 2010
  10. Christian Wulff (CDU), 2010 – 2012
  11. Joachim Gauck (Independent), 2012 – 2017
  12. Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD), since 2017

References change