Dieter Sarreither, Vice-President of the Federal Statistical Office, has been Deputy Federal Returning Officer since
1 August 2011. He is the successor of Peter Weigl, who was appointed Director at the Federal Constitutional Court on
1 April 2011.
Dieter Sarreither was assigned the function of Vice-President of the Federal Statistical Office on 1 July 2011. Since 2003, he had been IT Director there and since 2000 Director of the Department “Information Technology, Mathematical-Statistical Methods” at the Federal Statistical Office.
After finishing his studies in mathematics and economics in Heidelberg and Mainz, he started his career in operations research and system analysis in private industry.
In 1982, he joined the Federal Statistical Office and became Assistant Head of Section responsible for software development regarding statistical processes. In that function, he was already in charge, among other things, of the technical concept of, and software support for the tasks of the Federal Returning Officer. In the subsequent years, as Head of Section and Head of Division, he was responsible for the development of strategies, standards, and software tools in the co-ordinated system of the statistical offices.
In his function as Head of the Department “Information Technology, Mathematical-Statistical Methods” and as IT Director, he was responsible for manifold initiatives in the context of eGovernment which, under the title of eStatistics, led to a comprehensive modernisation of the statistical processes.
The Federal Returning Officer and his Deputy are appointed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior for an unlimited period of time. Continuing an old tradition going back to Reichstag elections, the President of the Federal Statistical Office has regularly been entrusted with the tasks of the Federal Returning Officer.
Since 1 August 2008, the President of the Federal Statistical Office Roderich Egeler has been Federal Returning Officer for Bundestag elections and for the election of Members of the European Parliament from the Federal Republic of Germany.
©2012 The Federal Returning Officer
