Minister president (Germany)

The Minister President (Ministerpräsident) is the head of state and government in thirteen of Germany's sixteen states.

In the three states of Berlin, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg the heads of the state hold different titles:

• in Berlin Governing Mayor (Regierender Bürgermeister) (before 1951 Mayor)
• in Bremen President of the Senate and Mayor (Präsident des Senats und Bürgermeister)
• in Hamburg First Mayor (Erster Bürgermeister).

In the since-1952 defunct states of Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern the heads of state held the title State President (Staatspräsident). Nevertheless, in Germany it is common practice, to call all sixteen heads of the states 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 has its own constitution. 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, 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 at the federal level, who only holds the role of a chief executive leader, while the President of Germany performs the more ceremonial powers and functions of the federal head of state.

Even though all sixteen ministers president 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 ministers president 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 majority 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, 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, where the President of the Senate and Mayor only has a ceremonial precedence over the other cabinet members. There are also differences regarding the ministers 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.

State	Title	Election threshold	Recall procedure	Position in cabinet	Power to shape the cabinet	Right to grant pardon	Minimum age	Other provisions
Baden-Württemberg[1]	Minister President	majority of members	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	cabinet appointments subject to parliamentary approval, the state parliament may recall individual cabinet ministers with a two-thirds majority	yes	35
Bavaria[2]	Minister President	simple majority	none	guideline competence	cabinet appointments subject to parliamentary approval	yes	40
Berlin[3]	Governing Mayor	simple majority	vote of no confidence, but if the state parliament does not elect a new Governing Mayor within 21 days, the former officeholder is reinvested automatically	guideline competence	full	no (whole cabinet)	18 (de facto)
Brandenburg[4]	Minister President	majority of members (first and second ballot), plurality (third ballot)	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18 (de facto)
Bremen[5]	President of the Senate and Mayor	simple majority	constructive vote of no confidence	ceremonial precedence	none	no (whole cabinet)	18	may not be a member of the state parliament
Hamburg[6]	First Mayor	majority of members	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	cabinet appointments subject to parliamentary approval	no (whole cabinet)	18	may not be a member of the state parliament
Hesse[7]	Minister President	majority of members	vote of no confidence	guideline competence	dismissal of cabinet appointments subject to parliamentary approval	yes	18 (de facto)	members of noble houses, which have reigned in Germany before 1918, are ineligible for office
Lower Saxony[8]	Minister President	majority of members or plurality, if the state parliament does not elect a minister president in 21 days and does not dissolve itself thereupon	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	cabinet appointments subject to parliamentary approval	yes	18 (de facto)
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern[9]	Minister President	majority of members or plurality, if the state parliament does not elect a minister president in 28 days and does not dissolve itself thereupon	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18 (de facto)
North Rhine-Westphalia[10]	Minister President	majority of members (first ballot), simple majority (second and third ballot), runoff (fourth ballot)	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18	has to be a member of the state parliament
Rhineland-Palatinate[11]	Minister President	majority of members	vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18 (de facto)
Saarland[12]	Minister President	majority of members	vote of no confidence	guideline competence	cabinet appointments and dismissals subject to parliamentary approval	no (whole cabinet)	18 (de facto)
Free State of Saxony[13]	Minister President	majority of members (first ballot), simple majority (following ballots)	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18 (de facto)
Saxony-Anhalt[14]	Minister President	majority of members or simple majority, if the state parliament does not elect a minister president in 14 days and does not dissolve itself thereupon	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18 (de facto)
Schleswig-Holstein[15]	Minister President	majority of members (first and second ballot), plurality (third ballot)	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18 (de facto)
Free State of Thuringia[16]	Minister President	majority of members (first and second ballot), plurality (third ballot)	constructive vote of no confidence	guideline competence	full	yes	18 (de facto)

By virtue of their position in the Bundesrat, the ministers president 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.

List of current office-holders

The longest-serving incumbent office-holder is Volker Bouffier, who serves as the 8th Minister President of Hesse since 31 August 2010. Bodo Ramelow, the 7th Minister President of Thuringia (since 4 March 2020), is the shortest-serving incumbent, although he already held this office from 2014 until 5 February 2020.

	Portrait	Name	Title	entered office	Party	Deputy Title
Baden-Württemberg		Winfried Kretschmann	9th Minister President of Baden-Württemberg	12 May 2011	Alliance 90/The Greens	Thomas Strobl (CDU) Deputy Minister President
Free State of Bavaria		Markus Söder	13th Minister President of Bavaria	16 March 2018	CSU	Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) Deputy Minister President Joachim Herrmann (CSU) Additional Deputy Minister President
Berlin		Michael Müller	14th Governing Mayor of Berlin	11 December 2014	SPD	Klaus Lederer (The Left) Mayor Ramona Pop (Alliance 90/The Greens) Mayor
Brandenburg		Dietmar Woidke	3rd Minister President of Brandenburg	28 August 2013	SPD	Michael Stübgen (CDU) First Deputy Minister President Ursula Nonnenmacher (Alliance 90/The Greens) Second Deputy Minister President
Free Hanseatic City of Bremen		Andreas Bovenschulte	9th President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen	15 August 2019	SPD	Maike Schaefer (Alliance 90/The Greens) Mayor
Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg		Peter Tschentscher	15th First Mayor of Hamburg	28 March 2018	SPD	Katharina Fegebank (Alliance 90/The Greens) Second Mayor
Hesse		Volker Bouffier	8th Minister President of Hesse	31 August 2010	CDU	Tarek Al-Wazir (Alliance 90/The Greens) Deputy Minister President
Lower Saxony		Stephan Weil	12th Minister President of Lower Saxony	19 February 2013	SPD	Bernd Althusmann (CDU) Deputy Minister President
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern		Manuela Schwesig	5th Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	4 July 2017	SPD	Lorenz Caffier (CDU) Deputy Minister President
North Rhine-Westphalia		Armin Laschet	11th Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia	27 June 2017	CDU	Joachim Stamp (FDP) Deputy Minister President
Rhineland-Palatinate		Malu Dreyer	8th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate	16 January 2013	SPD	Volker Wissing (FDP) Deputy Minister President
Saarland		Tobias Hans	11th Minister President of Saarland	1 March 2018	CDU	Anke Rehlinger (SPD) Deputy Minister President
Free State of Saxony		Michael Kretschmer	4th Minister President of Saxony	13 December 2017	CDU	Wolfram Günther (Alliance 90/The Greens) First Deputy Minister President Martin Dulig (SPD) Second Deputy Minister President
Saxony-Anhalt		Reiner Haseloff	6th Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt	19 April 2011	CDU	Petra Grimm-Benne (SPD) First Deputy Minister President Claudia Dalbert (Alliance 90/The Greens) Second Deputy Minister President
Schleswig-Holstein		Daniel Günther	14th Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein	28 June 2017	CDU	Monika Heinold (Alliance 90/The Greens) First Deputy Minister President Hainer Garg (FDP) Second Deputy Minister President
Free State of Thuringia		Bodo Ramelow	7th Minister President of Thuringia	4 March 2020	The Left	Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD) Deputy Minister President

Last office-holders in former states of the Federal Republic of Germany

	Portrait	Name	Title	in office	Party	Deputy Title
Baden		Leo Wohleb	State President of Baden	24 June 1947 - 25 April 1952	CDU	Alfred Schühly (CDU) Deputy State President
Württemberg-Baden		Reinhold Maier	Minister President of Württemberg-Baden	19 September 1945 - 25 April 1952	FDP	Hermann Veit (SPD) Deputy Minister President
Württemberg-Hohenzollern		Gebhard Müller	3rd State President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern	13 August 1948 - 25 April 1952	CDU	Viktor Renner (SPD) Deputy State President

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 have been head of a state before becoming President:

• Richard von Weizsäcker, 9th Governing Mayor of Berlin (1981–1984)
• Johannes Rau, 6th Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia (1978–1998)
• Christian Wulff, 10th Minister President of Lower Saxony (2003–2010)

One out of 13 Presidents of the Bundestag has been head of a state before becoming President:

• Kai-Uwe von Hassel, 6th Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein (1954–1963)

Four out of eight Chancellors of Germany have been head of a state before becoming Chancellor:

• Kurt-Georg Kiesinger, 3rd Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1958–1966)
• Willy Brandt, 4th Governing Mayor of Berlin (1957–1966)
• Helmut Kohl, 3rd Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1969–1976)
• Gerhard Schröder, 7th Minister President of Lower Saxony (1990–1998)

One out of nine Presidents of the Federal Constitutional Court has been head of a state before becoming President:

• Gebhard Müller, 3rd State President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1948–1952), 2nd Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1953–1958)

Many more Ministers President went on to become members of the federal government, EU institutions or associate judges of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany for example.

The three longest serving office-holders were:

• Peter Altmeier, 2nd Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1947–1969, 21 years, 10 months, 9 days)
• Franz-Josef Röder, 5th Minister President of Saarland (1959–1979, 20 years, 2 months, 3 days)
• Wilhelm Kaisen, 2nd President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen (1945–1965, 19 years, 11 months, 19 days)

The three shortest serving office-holders were:

• Thomas Kemmerich, 6th Minister President of Thuringia (2020, 28 days)
• Hans-Jochen Vogel, 8th Governing Mayor of Berlin (1981, 4 months, 19 days)
• Christoph Ahlhaus, 13th First Mayor of Hamburg (2010–2011, 6 months, 13 days)

There have been six female heads of a German state:

• Heide Simonis, 11th Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein (1993–2005)
• Christine Lieberknecht, 4th Minister President of Thuringia (2009–2014)
• Hannelore Kraft, 10th Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia (2010–2017)
• Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 10th Minister President of Saarland (2011–2018)
• Malu Dreyer, 8th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (incumbent since 2013)
• Manuela Schwesig, 5th Minister President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (incumbent since 2017)

One person has managed to become Minister President of two different states, which did not merge into one another:

• Bernhard Vogel, 4th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1976–1988) and 2nd 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), 1st Minister President of Baden-Württemberg (1952–1953)
• Gebhard Müller, 3rd State President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1948–1952), 2nd 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 the 3rd Minister President of Saxony between 2008–2017, is of Sorbian origin and speaks Sorbian and German as his mother tongue.

David McAllister, who served as the 11th Minister President of Lower Saxony between 2010–2013, has been the first office-holder with dual nationality (Germany and United Kingdom).

See also

• Ministerpräsident (Prussia)

References

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