Here in Germany we have two people at the top, and that confuses just about every visitor from the United States. The Chancellor runs the government. The Federal President, the Bundespräsident, is the head of state, outranks the Chancellor at every state dinner, and could not pass a single law if he tried.
Oh, and one more thing: we Germans don’t get to vote for him. Not once, not ever.
Head of State, Not Head of Government
There is no American equivalent. The U.S. president is head of state and head of government in one person; we split the job. The German Chancellor sets policy, picks the cabinet, and answers to parliament. The President signs, appoints, represents, and speaks. Think of the British king, minus the crown and with a five-year contract.
Protocol says: President first, then the President of the Bundestag, and only then the Chancellor. Power says the exact opposite. Both are right.
Why the Office Is Deliberately Weak
That is no accident. It is a lesson we paid for dearly. The Weimar Republic had a Reichspräsident who was elected directly, served seven years, and could rule by decree and appoint a chancellor without asking parliament. In January 1933, Paul von Hindenburg used exactly that power to make Adolf Hitler chancellor. What followed is the darkest chapter of German history.
So when the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), our constitution, was written in 1949, its authors built the new presidency small on purpose. No direct election, no emergency powers, no command over the army, no right to fire a chancellor on a whim. What was left is an office of dignity rather than muscle.
What the President Actually Does
Quite a lot, as long as you don’t expect fireworks. The President’s role and powers fill a page of their own; this is the short version.
- He signs every federal law; without that signature, nothing takes effect. He also checks whether the law came about the way the constitution demands. Roughly eight times since 1949 the answer was no and the pen stayed in the pocket, most recently in 2006 over a plan to privatize German air traffic control.
- He proposes the Chancellor to the Bundestag and formally appoints the ministers, federal judges, officers, and senior civil servants.
- He grants pardons at the federal level and hands out the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Federal Cross of Merit).
- He represents Germany abroad: state visits, ambassadors, treaties.
- He gives the Christmas address on TV. The New Year’s one belongs to the Chancellor.
The one moment the President holds real cards is when a Chancellor loses a vote of confidence. Then, and only then, may he dissolve the Bundestag and send the country to early elections. It has happened four times: in 1972, in 1983, in 2005, and at the end of 2024, when Frank-Walter Steinmeier cleared the way for the vote of February 2025. Each time the President took his time and talked to everybody first. Nobody wants to go down as the man who dissolved parliament for a Chancellor’s convenience.
And then there is the power nobody wrote down: the speech. A President has no majority to protect, so he can say what a Chancellor can’t afford to. Richard von Weizsäcker did that on May 8, 1985, when he called the end of World War II a day of liberation for Germany too, not merely a day of defeat. Forty years later, that sentence is still quoted. No law he signed is.
How the President Is Elected
Not by you, not by me. The President is chosen by the Bundesversammlung (Federal Convention), a body that exists for this one purpose and meets about once every five years in the Reichstag building in Berlin. Half of it is the entire Bundestag. The other half are delegates from the parliaments of the sixteen states, and the states like to use a few of those seats for a bit of show: actors, singers, and athletes get to vote right next to the professional politicians. ;-)
No debate, no speeches by the candidates, just a secret ballot. An absolute majority wins in the first two rounds; in a third, a plain majority of votes will do. The term runs five years, one immediate re-election is allowed, and after that it is over for good. You have to be at least forty and eligible to vote for the Bundestag. That is the entire list of requirements. From the moment of the oath, the new President is expected to drop party politics like a hot potato.
Where the President Lives and Works
The official seat is Schloss Bellevue (Bellevue Palace) on the edge of Berlin’s Tiergarten park, a white palace from 1785 that a Prussian prince built as a summer home. It has held the office since January 1994, when Richard von Weizsäcker moved it from Bonn. Before that, and since 1950, the seat was the Villa Hammerschmidt on the banks of the Rhine, which still serves as the second residence.
An easy way to tell whether the President is in the house: wherever he is working that day, his standard flies from the roof, a square of gold with a red border and the black federal eagle in the middle. No flag, no President.
Presidents Since 1949
Twelve people have held the office so far. Theodor Heuss, a liberal journalist and professor, was the first in 1949, and he set the tone for everyone after him: warm, a little professorial, and strictly above the party fray.
Two Presidents left early. Horst Köhler resigned in 2010 after an interview remark linking military missions to economic interests caused an uproar. Christian Wulff resigned in 2012 amid an affair over a private home loan and favors from friends; a court later cleared him. The full list of German Presidents, with dates and parties, is on a page of its own.
Who Is the German President Right Now?
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat and former Foreign Minister, has held the office since March 2017 and was re-elected in 2022 for a second and final term.
What the Job Pays
On paper, the President earns ten ninths of the Chancellor’s base salary, a polite way of saying “more than the boss.” In practice the Chancellor takes home more, because he also draws pay as a member of the Bundestag. After leaving office, a former President receives the Ehrensold (honorary pay): the full salary for life, whether the person served ten years or, as in Wulff’s case, less than two. You can guess which case caused the grumbling.
So the next time a headline reads “German President signs law,” you know he had little choice. And the next time a President gives a speech that keeps the country arguing for a week, you know that is the part of the job that matters. For the people who actually run the place, see my pages on the German government and German politics.