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The Minister president (''Ministerpräsident'') is the
head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...
and
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
in thirteen of Germany's sixteen states. In
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, the
Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Bremen (), officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (german: Freie Hansestadt Bremen; nds, Free Hansestadt Bremen), is the smallest and least populous of Germany's 16 states. It is informally called ("State of Bremen"), although the term ...
and the
Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
the heads of the state hold different titles: *in Berlin Governing Mayor (''Regierender Bürgermeister'') (before 1951 Mayor/''Bürgermeister'') *in Bremen President of the Senate and Mayor (''Präsident des Senats und Bürgermeister'') *in Hamburg First Mayor (''Erster Bürgermeister''). In the former states of
Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
and Württemberg-Hohenzollern, defunct since 1952, the heads of state held the title State President (''Staatspräsident''). Nevertheless, in Germany, it is common to refer to all sixteen heads of the states as ministers president, if they are referred to collectively. For example, the regular meetings of the sixteen office-holders are called Conference of Ministers president (''Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz'').


Constitutional roles and powers

As the German constitution ( Basic Law) defines the Federal Republic of Germany as a federation, each German state enjoys sovereignty, limited only by the Basic Law. The Basic Law gives the states a broad discretion to determine their respective state structure, only stating that each German state has to be a social and democratic republic under the rule of law (Article 28.1). In practice all German states have adopted some form of a mixed parliamentary republican system: Despite some differences between the individual state constitutions, the Ministers president have both typical powers of an executive leader (for example appointing and dismissing cabinet members or defining the political guidelines of the cabinet) and typical powers and functions of a head of state (for example the power to grant pardons on behalf of the state and to perform certain ceremonial duties). As such, their powers and functions resemble those of an executive president, but in contrast to a
presidential system A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separatio ...
, they are not directly elected and depend on the confidence of the respective state parliament. Thus, the constitutional position of a minister president differs from that of the
Chancellor of Germany The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...
at the federal level, who only holds the role of a chief executive leader, while the
President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...
performs the more ceremonial powers and functions of the federal head of state. Even though all sixteen Minister presidents hold roughly the same position in their states, there are also some important differences between the provisions of the state constitutions with regard to the head of state and government. This begins with the election procedure: All Minister presidents are elected by the state parliament, but while in some states a majority of parliament members is needed for a successful election, in other states a simple majority (a plurality of votes cast) is sufficient. The same goes for recall procedures: In some states, the parliament may simply vote an officeholder out of office, while in other states the parliament has to elect a new officeholder at the same time ( Constructive vote of no confidence). In
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
, the constitution does not allow a recall of the minister president at all. In fifteen states, the state constitution defines the minister president as the leader of the cabinet, giving him or her the right, to determine the cabinet's political guidelines, but this is not the case in
Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...
, where the President of the Senate and Mayor only has a ceremonial precedence over the other cabinet members. There are also differences regarding the Minister president power, to shape his or her cabinet: While in some states the office-holder is free to appoint or dismiss cabinet ministers at his or her discretion, in other states there are limits to this power, while the constitution of Bremen does not give the President of the Senate and Mayor any power, to directly influence the composition of his or her cabinet. By virtue of their position in the ''Bundesrat'', the Minister presidents can exert considerable influence on national politics within the federal structure. Along with several of their ministers, they commonly represent their state in the '' Bundesrat'' (the German Federal Council). Each state government is represented in the Bundesrat by three to six delegates, depending on the state's population.


Deputies

The Ministers president appoint one (or in some states two) member(s) of their cabinet as their deputies. In most states the deputy of the minister president holds the title ''Deputy Minister President''. Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein have a higher ranking ''First Deputy Minister President'' and a lower ranking ''Second Deputy Minister President''. Bavaria has a higher ranking ''Deputy Minister President'' and a lower ranking ''Additional Deputy Minister President''. Berlin has two equally ranking ''Mayors'' deputizing for the ''Governing Mayor'', while Bremen has a ''Mayor'' deputizing for the ''President of the Senate and Mayor'' and Hamburg has a ''Second Mayor'' deputizing for the ''First Mayor''. Their duties and functions mirror roughly those of the Vice Chancellor of Germany on federal level. Most importantly, the Deputy Minister president (or equivalent) temporarily act as Minister President in case of the office-holder's death or incapacity until the end of the incapacity or the election of a successor by the state parliament. An exception to this are the regulations in the state constitution of Bavaria (Art. 44.3), which designates both the Deputy Minister President (for internal affairs) and the President of the Landtag (for the external representation) as acting successors. Office-holders who resign normally stay in office as acting Ministers President (or equivalent) themselves until a successor is elected. This is however not the case, if the reason for the resignation is some form of constitutional, legal or traditional incompatibility with an office, on which the resigning office-holder has entered: The Basic Law prohibits the President of Germany from holding office in a state government at the same time (Art. 55.1). According to the Federal Constitutional Court Act, the same applies to judges on the Federal Constitutional Court (§ 3.3). Simultaneous membership in the Bundestag or the federal government is not prohibited for a Minister President (or other members of a state government) under federal law, but in some states (for example North Rhine-Westphalia) it is forbidden by the state constitution and generally it is not in line with political tradition. Therefore, office-holders elected or appointed to such office usually resign and refrain from continuing to hold the office of Minister President on an acting basis, leaving that role to their deputy.https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/189468/8464d1ab92cf523017d226d478dca83c/2005_11_10-data.pdf Normally, such full replacements last only a few days or even a few hours, but there have also been cases in which such acting Minister president have had to remain in office for a longer period because the election of a new regular incumbent had proved difficult; this occurred for example in
Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
in 1987/88: The state election on 13 September 1987 had resulted in a stalemate between the centre-right bloc of CDU and FDP, which supported the incumbent
Uwe Barschel Uwe Barschel (13 May 1944 – 11 October 1987) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister-President in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Having assumed office of Minister-President at the age of 38, B ...
, and the centre-left parties SPD and SSW, each with 37 seats. Due to the weak election results for the CDU and above all the Barschel affair, a supposed election-fraud scandal, Barschel declared his resignation with effect from 2 October and died a few days later in a hotel in
Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...
under circumstances that have not been clarified to this day. As a result, the previous deputy
Henning Schwarz Henning Schwarz (24 October 1928 – 13 April 1993) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was interim Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein during the Barschel affair. Life Schwarz was born in Bad Oldeslo ...
became ''acting Minister President''. Attempts to elect a new Minister President in the state parliament failed because of the stalemate, so the parliament dissolved itself and early state elections were held on 8 May 1988. The SPD emerged from these with an absolute majority of seats and its leading candidate
Björn Engholm Björn Engholm (born 9 November 1939) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He was Federal Minister for Education and Science from 1981 to 1982, and in 1982 also Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests. From 1 ...
was elected Minister President on 31 May. Schwarz thus held office as acting Minister President for 242 days.


List of current office-holders

The longest-serving incumbent office-holder is Reiner Haseloff, who has served as the Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt since 19 April 2011.
Boris Rhein Boris Rhein (born 2 January 1972) is a German politician and the current Minister-President of Hesse. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he has been active in the politics of Hesse since the late 1990s. After being elected to th ...
, the Minister President of Hesse (since 31 May 2022), is the shortest-serving incumbent.


Lists of former Ministers president


Ministers President of Baden-Württemberg (since 1952)


Ministers President of Bavaria (since 1945)


Governing Mayors of Berlin (since 1948, West Berlin until 1990/91)


Ministers President of Brandenburg (since 1990)


Presidents of the Senate and Mayors of Bremen (since 1945)


First Mayors of Hamburg (since 1946)


Ministers President of Hesse (since 1946)


Ministers President of Lower Saxony (since 1946)


Ministers President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (since 1990)


Ministers President of North Rhine-Westphalia (since 1946)


Ministers President of Rhineland-Palatinate (since 1946)


Ministers President of Saarland (since 1947, joined the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957)


Ministers President of Saxony (since 1990)


Ministers President of Saxony-Anhalt (since 1990)


Ministers President of Schleswig-Holstein (since 1946)


Ministers President of Thuringia (since 1990)


Defunct states


State Presidents of

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden i ...
(1947–1952)


Ministers President of Württemberg-Baden (1945–1952)


State Presidents of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1945–1952)


Trivia

The office of a minister president is both highly prestigious in its own right and acts as a potential "career springboard" for German politicians. Three out of twelve
Presidents of Germany President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
have been head of a state before becoming President: *
Richard von Weizsäcker Richard Karl Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 15 April 1920 – 31 January 2015) was a German politician ( CDU), who served as President of Germany from 1984 to 1994. Born into the aristocratic Weizsäcker family, who were part of the German nobili ...
, Governing Mayor of Berlin (1981–1984) *
Johannes Rau Johannes Rau (; 16 January 193127 January 2006) was a German politician (SPD). He was the president of Germany from 1 July 1999 until 30 June 2004 and the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia from 20 September 1978 to 9 June 1998. In th ...
, Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia (1978–1998) * Christian Wulff, Minister President of Lower Saxony (2003–2010) One out of 13
Presidents of the Bundestag The president of the Bundestag (german: Präsident des Deutschen Bundestages or ) presides over the sessions of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, with functions similar to that of a speaker in other countries. In the German or ...
has been head of a state before becoming President: *
Kai-Uwe von Hassel Kai-Uwe von Hassel (21 April 1913 – 8 May 1997) was a German politician from Schleswig-Holstein associated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1954 to 1963, as Federal Ministe ...
, Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein (1954–1963) Five out of nine Chancellors of Germany have been head of a state before becoming Chancellor: *
Kurt-Georg Kiesinger Kurt Georg Kiesinger (; 6 April 1904 – 9 March 1988) was a German politician who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1 December 1966 to 21 October 1969. Before he became Chancellor he served as Minister President of Baden-Württemberg ...
, Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1958–1966) *
Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ger ...
, Governing Mayor of West-Berlin (1957–1966) * Helmut Kohl, Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1969–1976) *
Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...
, Minister President of Lower Saxony (1990–1998) *
Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born ) is a German politician who has served as the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor under Angela Merkel and as Federal Minister ...
, First Mayor of Hamburg (2011–2018) One out of ten Presidents of the Federal Constitutional Court has been head of a state before becoming President: *
Gebhard Müller Gebhard Müller (17 April 1900 – 7 August 1990) was a German lawyer and politician ( CDU). He was President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1948–1952), Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1953–1958) and President of the Federal Constit ...
, State President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1948–1952), Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1953–1958) Many more Ministers President went on to become members of the
federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...
, EU institutions or associate judges of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany for example. The three longest serving office-holders were: *
Peter Altmeier Peter Altmeier (12 August 1899 – 28 August 1977) was a German politician ( Zentrum, later CDU). From 1947 to 1969, he was the Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate. He served as the President of the Bundesrat in 1954/55 and 1965/66. He ...
, Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1947–1969, 21 years, 314 days) * Franz-Josef Röder, Minister President of Saarland (1959–1979, 20 years, 64 days) * Wilhelm Kaisen, President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen (1945–1965, 19 years, 354 days) The three shortest serving office-holders were: * Thomas Kemmerich, Minister President of Thuringia (2020, 28 days) * Heinrich Welsch, Minister President of Saarland (1955–1956, 73 days) * Erich Vagts, President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen (1945, 90 days) There have been eight female heads of a German state: *
Heide Simonis Heide Simonis (; born 4 July 1943 in Bonn as Heide Steinhardt) is a German Author and Politician. She is a member of the SPD. From 1993 to 2005 she served as the Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein. She was the first woman to serve as head ...
, Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein (1993–2005) * Christine Lieberknecht, Minister President of Thuringia (2009–2014) * Hannelore Kraft, Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia (2010–2017) * Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Minister President of Saarland (2011–2018) * Malu Dreyer, Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (incumbent since 2013) * Manuela Schwesig, Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (incumbent since 2017) * Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of Berlin (incumbent since 2021) * Anke Rehlinger, Minister President of Saarland (incumbent since 2022) One person has managed to become Minister President of two different states, which did not merge into one another: * Bernhard Vogel, Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1976–1988) and Minister President of Thuringia (1992–2003) Two persons have been Ministers President of two states before and after they had merged into one another: * Reinhold Maier, Minister President of Württemberg-Baden (1945–1952), Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1952–1953) *
Gebhard Müller Gebhard Müller (17 April 1900 – 7 August 1990) was a German lawyer and politician ( CDU). He was President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1948–1952), Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1953–1958) and President of the Federal Constit ...
, State President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1948–1952), Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1953–1958) So far, there has been already one Minister President from a recognized national minority: Stanislaw Tillich, who served as Minister President of
Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a ...
between 2008–2017, is of Sorbian origin and speaks Sorbian and German as his mother tongue. David McAllister, who served as the Minister President of Lower Saxony between 2010–2013, has been the first office-holder with dual nationality (Germany and
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
). The vast majority former ministers president have been members of Germany's two biggest political parties, the center-right CDU (or, in Bavaria, its sister party
CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social ...
) and the center-left SPD. However, all german parties currently represented in the Bundestag, apart from the AfD, have at least once provided a minister president.
Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (for ...
: * Winfried Kretschmann, Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (since 2011) Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP): * Reinhold Maier, Minister President of Württemberg-Baden (1945–1952), Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1952–1953) * Thomas Kemmerich, Minister President of Thuringia (2020) The Left: * Bodo Ramelow, Minister President of Thuringia (2014–2020 and since 2020)


See also

* Ministerpräsident (Prussia)


References

{{Reflist * Government of Germany Politics of Germany Federalism by country Lists of political office-holders in Germany States of Germany-related lists