Editing President of Germany (section)

==Election==
{{Main|Federal Convention (Germany)}}
The president is elected for a term of five years by secret ballot, without debate, by a specially convened [[Federal Convention (Germany)|Federal Convention]] which mirrors the aggregated majority position in the [[Bundestag]] (the federal parliament) and in the [[State Parliament (Germany)|parliaments]] of the 16 German [[States of Germany|states]]. The convention consists of all Bundestag members, as well as an equal number of electors elected by the state legislatures in proportion to their respective populations. Since reunification, all Federal Conventions have had more than 1200 members, as the Bundestag has always had more than 600 parliamentarians since then. It is not required that state electors are chosen from the members of the state legislature; often some prominent citizens are chosen.

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. 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.

In the first two rounds of the election, the candidate who achieves an absolute majority is elected. If, after two votes, no single candidate has received this level of support, in the third and final vote the candidate who wins a [[Plurality (voting)|plurality]] of votes cast is elected.

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 or because 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, 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 state elections, it can potentially have enough support to defeat the chancellor's party's candidate; this happened in the elections in 1979 and 2004. For this reason, presidential elections can indicate the result of an upcoming general election. According to a long-standing adage in German politics, "if you can create a President, you can form a government."{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

===List of elections===
{| class="wikitable"

|-
! Election
! Date
! Site
! Ballots
! Winner<br/>(endorsing parties){{efn|governing parties in bold}}
! Electoral votes<br/>(percentage)
! Runner-up<br/>(endorsing parties){{efn|governing parties in bold}}
! Electoral votes<br/>(percentage)

|-
| [[1949 West German presidential election|1st Federal Convention]]
| 12 September 1949
| [[Bonn]]
| 2
| [[Theodor Heuss]]<br/>('''[[Free Democratic Party (Germany)|FDP]]''', '''[[Christian Democratic Union of Germany|CDU]]''', '''[[Christian Social Union in Bavaria|CSU]])'''
| 416 (51.7%)
| [[Kurt Schumacher]]<br/>([[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]])
| 312 (38.8%)

|-
| [[1954 West German presidential election|2nd Federal Convention]]
| 17 July 1954
| [[West Berlin]]
| 1
| Theodor Heuss<br/>('''FDP''', '''CDU''', '''CSU''', SPD)
| 871 (85.6%)
| [[Alfred Weber]]<br/>([[Communist Party of Germany|KPD]])
| 12 (1.2%)

|-
| [[1959 West German presidential election|3rd Federal Convention]]
| 1 July 1959
| West Berlin
| 2
| [[Heinrich Lübke]]<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''')
| 526 (50.7%)
| [[Carlo Schmid (German politician)|Carlo Schmid]]<br/>(SPD)
| 386 (37.2%)

|-
| [[1964 West German presidential election|4th Federal Convention]]
| 1 July 1964
| West Berlin
| 1
| Heinrich Lübke<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''', SPD)
| 710 (68.1%)
| [[Ewald Bucher]]<br/>('''FDP''')
| 123 (11.8%)

|-
| [[1969 West German presidential election|5th Federal Convention]]
| 5 March 1969
| West Berlin
| 3
| [[Gustav Heinemann]]<br/>('''SPD''', FDP)
| 512 (49.4%)
| [[Gerhard Schröder (CDU)|Gerhard Schröder]]<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''', [[National Democratic Party of Germany|NPD]])
| 506 (48.8%)

|-
| [[1974 West German presidential election|6th Federal Convention]]
| 15 May 1974
| Bonn
| 1
| [[Walter Scheel]]<br/>('''FDP''', '''SPD''')
| 530 (51.2%)
| [[Richard von Weizsäcker]]<br/>(CDU, CSU)
| 498 (48.1%)

|-
| [[1979 West German presidential election|7th Federal Convention]]
| 23 May 1979
| Bonn
| 1
| [[Karl Carstens]]<br/>(CDU, CSU)
| 528 (51%)
| [[Annemarie Renger]]<br/>('''SPD''')
| 431 (41.6%)

|-
| [[1984 West German presidential election|8th Federal Convention]]
| 23 May 1984
| Bonn
| 1
| Richard von Weizsäcker<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''', '''FDP''', SPD)
| 832 (80%)
| [[Luise Rinser]]<br/>([[Alliance 90/The Greens|Greens]])
| 68 (6.5%)

|-
| [[1989 West German presidential election|9th Federal Convention]]
| 23 May 1989
| Bonn
| 1
| Richard von Weizsäcker<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''', '''FDP''', SPD)
| 881 (84.9%)
| None
| 108 (10.4%) no-votes

|-
| [[1994 German presidential election|10th Federal Convention]]
| 23 May 1994
| [[Berlin]]
| 3
| [[Roman Herzog]]<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''')
| 696 (52.6%)
| [[Johannes Rau]]<br/>(SPD)
| 605 (45.7%)

|-
| [[1999 German presidential election|11th Federal Convention]]
| 23 May 1999
| Berlin
| 2
| Johannes Rau<br/>('''SPD''', '''Greens''')
| 690 (51.6%)
| [[Dagmar Schipanski]]<br/>(CDU, CSU)
| 572 (42.8%)

|-
| [[2004 German presidential election|12th Federal Convention]]
| 23 May 2004
| Berlin
| 1
| [[Horst Köhler]]<br/>(CDU, CSU, FDP)
| 604 (50.1%)
| [[Gesine Schwan]]<br/>('''SPD''', '''Greens''')
| 589 (48.9%)

|-
| [[2009 German presidential election|13th Federal Convention]]
| 23 May 2009
| Berlin
| 1
| Horst Köhler<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''', FDP, [[Free Voters|FW]])
| 613 (50.1%)
| Gesine Schwan<br/>('''SPD''', Greens)
| 503 (41.1%)

|-
| [[2010 German presidential election|14th Federal Convention]]
| 30 June 2010
| Berlin
| 3
| [[Christian Wulff]]<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''', '''FDP''')
| 625 (50.2%)
| [[Joachim Gauck]]<br/>(SPD, Greens)
| 494 (39.7%)

|-
| [[2012 German presidential election|15th Federal Convention]]
| 18 March 2012
| Berlin
| 1
| Joachim Gauck<br/>('''CDU''', '''CSU''', '''FDP''', SPD, Greens, Free Voters, [[South Schleswig Voters' Association|SSW]])
| 991 (79.9%)
| [[Beate Klarsfeld]]<br/>([[The Left (Germany)|The Left]])
| 126 (10.2%)

|-
| [[2017 German presidential election|16th Federal Convention]]
| 12 February 2017
| Berlin
| 1
| [[Frank-Walter Steinmeier]]<br/>('''SPD''', '''CDU''', '''CSU''', Greens, FDP, SSW)
| 931 (74.3%)
| [[Christoph Butterwegge]]<br/>(The Left)
| 128 (10.2%)

|-
| [[2022 German presidential election|17th Federal Convention]]
| 13 February 2022
| Berlin
| 1
| Frank-Walter Steinmeier<br/>('''SPD''', '''Greens''', ''' FDP''', CDU, CSU, SSW)
| 1045 (72.7%)
| [[Max Otte]]<br/>(AfD)
| 140 (9.74%)
|}

{{Notelist}}

===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 [[German Bundesrat|Bundesrat]] (it is the only event that demands such a joint session constitutionally). The religious references may optionally be omitted.

<blockquote>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.)<ref>{{cite book|title=Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland|pages=Article 56|no-pp=true }}</ref></blockquote>

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.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Amtseid à la Obama – Verfassungsrechtliche Grundfragen und Probleme des Amtseids nach dem Grundgesetz |journal = JURA – Juristische Ausbildung |issn=0170-1452 |last= Haensle |first=Walter|date=2009|volume=31|issue=9|pages=670–676|doi=10.1515/JURA.2009.670|s2cid = 15442740 |url=https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25798/1/Haensle_Amtseid.pdf}}</ref> If a president is re-elected for a second consecutive term, he does not take the oath again.