The German Federal Presidents
Read on for an overview of all Federal Presidents to date. All of them succeeded in fulfilling the unifying role of their office – but they each did so in their own way.
1949 – 1959
Theodor Heuss
Theodor Heuss, born in 1884 in Brackenheim, studied economics and history of art in Munich and Berlin and obtained a doctoral degree. He started working in journalism as a student and later made it his career.
1959 – 1969
Heinrich Lübke
Heinrich Lübke, born in 1894 in Enkhausen in the Sauerland, studied agriculture, geodesy and agricultural engineering, and later also economics and administrative law. He volunteered for military service in World War I. He later worked as executive director of the Westfälischer Pächter- und Siedlerbund (Westphalian Tenants and Settlers Association) and in 1931 was elected to the Prussian Landtag (state parliament) for the Centre Party. In 1933 Lübke was dismissed from all offices and arrested.
1969 – 1974
Gustav Heinemann
Gustav Heinemann, born in 1899 in Schwelm in Westphalia, took part in World War l but saw his war service ended by a bout of influenza after only a few weeks. He studied law, economics and history, gaining doctoral degrees in political science and law. He worked as a legal adviser and authorised signatory at the steel business Rheinische Stahlwerke Essen and later became a deputy board member.
1974 – 1979
Walter Scheel
Walter Scheel, born in 1919 in Solingen, completed a bank apprenticeship after his Abitur (higher education entrance qualification). In World War II he served until 1945 as a First Lieutenant in the Luftwaffe. Thereafter he worked in the steel business belonging to the father of his first wife Eva. In 1953 he became an independent management consultant in Düsseldorf. From 1958 he was the CEO of Interfinanz GmbH, a company he had co‑founded.
1979 – 1984
Karl Carstens
Karl Carstens, born in 1914 in Bremen, studied law and political science in Hamburg and France. As well as gaining a doctorate, he completed a Master of Laws degree at Yale University in Connecticut. He joined the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) in 1955. In the same year he was employed by the Federal Foreign Office, where he ultimately became a State Secretary. He was elected to the German Bundestag in 1972 and became its President in 1976.
1984 – 1994
Richard von Weizsäcker
Richard Freiherr von Weizsäcker, born in 1920 in Stuttgart, studied in Oxford and Grenoble and from 1938 to 1945 performed military service. After World War II he studied law and history and went on to gain a doctoral degree in law. While still a student in 1948, he assisted the lawyer defending his father at the Nuremberg trials for war crimes.
1994 – 1999
Roman Herzog
Roman Herzog, born in 1934 in Landshut, studied law and gained a post‑doctoral degree in 1964 under the constitutional lawyer Theodor Maunz. He then taught in Munich, at Freie Universität Berlin and in Speyer. Herzog joined the CDU in 1970. He was elected to the Synod of the Evangelical Church in 1973. In 1987 he was appointed President of the Federal Constitutional Court.
1999 – 2004
Johannes Rau
Johannes Rau, born in 1931 in Wuppertal, dropped out of grammar school before taking the Abitur and became an active member of the Confessing Church. He trained in the book trade, later worked as an editor and sales representative and finally became a director at the publishing house Jugenddienst-Verlag in Wuppertal. He was also involved in journalism and in politics, first with the GVP (All‑German People’s Party) and then, after it disbanded, with the SPD (Social Democratic Party).
2004 – 2010
Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler, born in 1943 in Skierbieszów, Poland, as the seventh of eight children, ended up in Ludwigsburg after his family fled the advancing Soviet troops. He studied economic science in Tübingen and gained a doctorate. He worked for the Economic Affairs Ministry in Bonn from 1976 and later became State Secretary at the Finance Ministry. In 2000 he was made Managing Director of the IMF in Washington.
2010 – 2012
Christian Wulff
Christian Wulff, born in 1959 in Osnabrück, was actively involved in the Schüler Union and the Junge Union (youth organisations affiliated with the CDU) from an early age and also served as a pupil and later student representative. He studied law with a focus on economic science and in 1990 joined a law firm in Hannover. He became a member of Osnabrück city council for the CDU in 1986, then won a seat in the Lower Saxony Landtag in 1994 before later being made Deputy Federal Chairman of his party.
2012 – 2017
Joachim Gauck
Joachim Gauck, born in 1940 in Rostock, studied theology after the Abitur. From 1965 to 1990 he was in the service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg, working as a pastor for many years. He became involved in opposing the dictatorship in the German Democratic Republic in his youth, and in 1989 was one of the founders of the New Forum movement. From 1991 to 2000 he served as Special Commissioner of the Federal Government for the files of the State Security Service of the former GDR.
Acting Federal President : Frank-Walter Steinmeier
