Der Bundeswahlleiter

President of the Federal Republic of Germany

The Federal President is the head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany. He or she is elected by the Federal Convention for a period of five years.

Among his/her major functions are:

representing the Federal Republic of Germany within and outside the country,
proposing a person for election to the office of Federal Chancellor (Article 63 of the Basic Law),
appointing and dismissing the Federal Chancellor (Articles 63, 67 of the Basic Law) and the federal ministers (Article 64 of the Basic Law),
dissolving the German Bundestag (Articles 63, 68 of the Basic Law),
certifying and promulgating laws (Article 82 of the Basic Law),
representing the Federal Republic of Germany for the purposes of international law and concluding of treaties with foreign states (Article 59 of the Basic Law).

Federal Presidents’ terms of office

Prof. Dr. Theodor Heuss	12 Sep. 1949 to	12 Sep. 1959
Dr. h.c. Heinrich Lübke	13 Sep. 1959 to	30 June 1969
Dr. Dr. Gustav W. Heinemann	1 July 1969 to	30 June 1974
Walter Scheel	1 July 1974 to	30 June 1979
Prof. Dr. Karl Carstens	1 July 1979 to	30 June 1984
Dr. Richard von Weizäcker	1 July 1984 to	30 June 1994
Prof. Dr. Roman Herzog	1 July 1994 to	30 June 1999
Johannes Rau	1 July 1999 to	30 June 2004
Prof. Dr. Horst Köhler	1 July 2004 to	31 May 2010
Christian Wulff	2 July 2010 to	17 Feb. 2012
Joachim Gauck	23 March 2012 to

Last update: March 2012