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Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler (; 22 February 1943 – 1 February 2025) was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU (of which he was a member) and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, CSU, as well as the liberal Free Democratic Party (Germany), FDP, Köhler was 2004 German presidential election, elected to his first five-year term by the Federal Convention (Germany), Federal Convention on 23 May 2004 and was subsequently inaugurated on 1 July 2004. He was 2009 German presidential election, reelected to a second term on 23 May 2009. Just a year later, on 31 May 2010, he resigned from his office in a controversy over a comment on the role of the Bundeswehr, German Armed Forces in light of a visit to the troops in Afghanistan. During his tenure as president, whose office is mostly concerned with ceremonial matters, Köhler was a highly popular politician, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President Of Germany
The president of Germany, officially titled the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international correspondence; the official English title is President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the head of state of Germany. The current officeholder is Frank-Walter Steinmeier who was 2017 German presidential election, elected on 12 February 2017 and 2022 German presidential election, re-elected on 13 February 2022. He is currently serving his second five-year-term, which began on 19 March 2022. Under the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949 constitution (Basic Law) Germany has a parliamentary system of government in which the Chancellor of Germany, chancellor (similar to a prime minister or minister-president in other parliamentary democracies) is the head of government. The president has a ceremonial role as figurehead, but also has the right and duty to act politically. They can give ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theo Waigel
Theodor Waigel (born 22 April 1939) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). He represented Neu-Ulm in the Bundestag from 1976 to 2002. Waigel is a lawyer, and earned a doctorate in 1967. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1972 to 2002. He served as Federal Minister of Finance of Germany in the Cabinet of Chancellor Helmut Kohl from 1989 to 1998, and as Chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria from 1988 to 1999. He is known as the father of the Euro, the European currency. He played a vital role in its introduction as German Minister of Finance. He also managed to impose an austerity program on West Germans and overcome the massive deficits of German unification to meet the strict fiscal benchmarks mandated by Europe's single currency. In 2009, he was appointed Honorary Chairman of the CSU. Early life Waigel was born as the son of a small-time farmer from the Swabian village of Oberrohr. When he was 6, his older brother, August, was k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bundeswehr
The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: German Army, German Navy, German Air Force and Cyber and Information Domain Service (Germany), Cyber and Information Domain Service, which are supported by the Bundeswehr Support Area. , the had a strength of 180,215 active-duty military personnel and 80,761 civilians, placing it among the 30 largest military forces in the world, and making it the second largest in the European Union behind French Armed Forces, France. In addition, the has approximately 34,600 reserve personnel (2024). With German military expenditures at $88.5 billion (2024), the is the fourth-highest-funded military in the world, though military expenditures have until recently remained low at an average at 1.5% of national GDP, well below the non-binding NATO targ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 German Presidential Election
An indirect presidential election (officially the 13th Federal Convention) was held in Germany on 23 May 2009. The president of Germany is elected by the Federal Convention, which is made up of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members elected by the state parliaments. The incumbent Horst Köhler (supported by CDU/ CSU and FDP) stood for reelection and faced Gesine Schwan (supported by SPD and Alliance '90/The Greens). The Left (successor of the Party of Democratic Socialism) indicated they might be prepared to support Schwan if the SPD agreed to be open to cooperation with the Left on the federal level, but ultimately decided they would present their own candidate. The party nominated party activist and TV actor Peter Sodann on 14 October 2008; and it was left undecided whether the party would support Schwan if Sodann was eliminated after the first round of voting. Frank Rennicke was nominated as the joint candidate of the far-right parties NPD and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Convention (Germany)
The Federal Convention, also known as the Federal Assembly (), is, together with the Joint Committee, one of two non-permanent constitutional bodies in the institutional framework of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is convened solely for the purpose of electing the President of Germany. The Federal Convention consists of all members of the federal parliament (Bundestag) and the same number of delegates from the 16 federated states. Those delegates are elected by the state parliaments for this purpose only. Convening the Federal Convention Each Federal Convention is convened by the incumbent president of the Bundestag in due course. Normally, this takes place during the last months of a sitting president's current term of office. The Convention must meet no later than thirty days before the end of the term, with the state parliaments needing sufficient time between the convening and the meeting to elect state delegates. If the term of office of a president ends prematurel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2004 German Presidential Election
An indirect presidential election (officially the 12th Federal Convention) was held in Germany on 23 May 2004. The president of Germany (''Bundespräsident'') was the titular head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany. Germany is today often referred to as a "chancellor democracy", reflecting the role of the chancellor as the country's chief executive, and so consequently the president's tasks are mostly ceremonial, but for the signing of all new federal laws before they go into effect. In practice however, all presidents have had informal influence on politics and society but mostly in a non-partisan way. The president is not elected directly by the voters but by a special Federal Convention ( Bundesversammlung) which is assembled every five years for this task alone, the exception being if the federal president’s term of office ends prematurely. This body consists of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members selected by the sixteen federal state parli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party (, FDP, ) is a liberalism, liberal political party in Germany. The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of former liberal political parties in Germany before World War II, namely the German Democratic Party and the German People's Party. For most of the second half of the 20th century, particularly from 1961 to 1982, the FDP held the Balance of power (parliament), balance of power in the Bundestag. It has been a junior coalition partner to both the CDU/CSU (1949–1956, 1961–1966, 1982–1998, and 2009–2013) and Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD; 1969–1982 and 2021–2024). In the 2013 German federal election, 2013 federal election, the FDP failed to win any directly elected seats in the Bundestag and came up short of the Electoral threshold#Germany, 5 percent threshold to qualify for list representation, being left without representation in the Bundestag for the first time in its history. In the 2017 German federal el ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Social Union Of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German language, German: , CSU) is a Christian democracy, Christian democratic and Conservatism in Germany, conservative List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. Having a regionalism (politics), regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU), operates in the other fifteen states of Germany. It #Relationship with the CDU, differs from the CDU by being somewhat more conservative in social matters, following Catholic social teaching. The CSU is considered the ''de facto'' successor of the Weimar Republic, Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party. At the federal level, the CSU forms a common faction in the Bundestag with the CDU which is frequently referred to as the Union Faction (''die Unionsfraktion'') or simply CDU/CSU. The CSU has had 43 seats in the Bundestag since the 2021 German federal election, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellence Universities. The University of Tübingen is especially known as a centre for the study of plant biology, medicine, law, archeology, ancient cultures, philosophy, theology, religious studies, humanities, and more recently as a center of excellence for artificial intelligence. The university's noted alumni and faculty include presidents, a pope, EU Commissioners, judges of the Federal Constitutional Court, and Johannes Kepler. The university is associated with eleven List of Nobel laureates, Nobel laureates, especially in the fields of medicine and chemistry. History The University of Tübingen was founded in 1477 by Count Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg, Eberhard V (Eberhard im Bart, 1445–1496), later the first Duke of Württemberg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eva Köhler
Eva Luise Köhler (; Bohnet; born 2 January 1947) is the widow of former German president Horst Köhler and as such, was sometimes referred to by the media as the " First Lady" during her husband's presidency. Education and career She completed her ''Abitur'' in Ludwigsburg in 1966, and studied history, Germanistics and religion. She then became a teacher of German. Eva Köhler was a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1972 to 1990 as she advocated Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik and participated in local politics. She left the SPD because she disliked the politics of Oskar Lafontaine. Personal life Eva and Horst Köhler have two children, Ulrike (born 1972) and Jochen (born 1977). Her husband died on 1 February 2025. Honours Foreign honours * : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 March 2006) * : Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great (19 October 2005) * : Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Hen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Democratic Union Of Germany
The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 January 2022, and has served as the Chancellor of Germany since 6 May 2025. The CDU is the largest party in the Bundestag, the German federal legislature, with 208 out of 630 seats, having won 28.5% of votes in the 2025 German federal election, 2025 federal election. It forms the CDU/CSU Bundestag faction, also known as the Union, with its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU). The group's parliamentary leader is also Friedrich Merz. Founded in 1945 as an interdenominational Christian party, the CDU effectively succeeded the pre-war Catholic Centre Party (Germany), Centre Party, with many former members joining the party, including its first leader Konrad Adenauer. The party also included politicians of other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of Germany, being the List of German states by area, third smallest state in the country by area. Berlin is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and Brandenburg's capital Potsdam is nearby. The urban area of Berlin has a population of over 4.6 million and is therefore the most populous urban area in Germany. The Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr region, as well as the List of EU metropolitan areas by GDP, fifth-biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
