Minister president (Germany)


The minister-president is the head of government in thirteen of Germany's sixteen states.
In Berlin, the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the heads of the state hold different titles:
In the former states of Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern, defunct since 1952, the heads of state held the title State President.
Nevertheless, in Germany, it is common to refer to all sixteen heads of the states as minister-presidents when they are referred to collectively. For example, the regular meetings of the sixteen office-holders are called Conference of minister-presidents (Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz).

Constitutional roles and powers

As the German constitution 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. In practice all German states have adopted some form of a mixed parliamentary republican system: Despite some differences between the individual state constitutions, the minister-presidents have both typical powers of an executive leader and typical powers and functions of a head of state. 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 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 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. 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 only has a ceremonial precedence over the other cabinet members. The power of the minister-president to shape the cabinet also varies: Some states allow the office-holder complete discretion in appointing or dismissing cabinet ministers, while others impose limits. The constitution of Bremen does not grant the President of the Senate any direct influence over the cabinet's composition.
StateTitleElection thresholdRecall procedurePosition in cabinetPower to shape the cabinetRight to grant pardonMinimum ageOther provisions
Baden-WürttembergMinister-presidentmajority of membersconstructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencelimited yes35
Free State of BavariaMinister-presidentsimple majoritynoneguideline competencelimited yes40
BerlinGoverning Mayorsimple majorityvote of no confidence guideline competencefullno 18
BrandenburgMinister-Presidentmajority of members, plurality constructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18
Free Hanseatic City of BremenPresident of the Senate and Mayorsimple majorityconstructive vote of no confidenceceremonial precedencenone no 18may not be a member of the state parliament
HamburgFirst Mayor and President of the Senatemajority of membersconstructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencelimited no 18may not be a member of the state parliament
HesseMinister-presidentmajority of membersvote of no confidenceguideline competencelimited yes18 members of noble houses, which have reigned in Germany before 1918, are ineligible for office
Lower SaxonyMinister-presidentmajority of members or plurality, if the state parliament does not elect a minister-president in 21 days and does not dissolve itself thereuponconstructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencelimited yes18
Mecklenburg-VorpommernMinister-presidentmajority of members or plurality, if the state parliament does not elect a minister-president in 28 days and does not dissolve itself thereuponconstructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18
North Rhine-WestphaliaMinister-Presidentmajority of members, simple majority, runoff constructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18has to be a member of the state parliament
Rhineland-PalatinateMinister-presidentmajority of membersvote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18
SaarlandMinister-presidentmajority of membersvote of no confidenceguideline competencelimited no 18
Free State of SaxonyMinister-presidentmajority of members, simple majority constructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18
Saxony-AnhaltMinister-presidentmajority of members or simple majority, if the state parliament does not elect a minister-president in 14 days and does not dissolve itself thereuponconstructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18
Schleswig-HolsteinMinister-presidentmajority of members, plurality constructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18
Free State of ThuringiaMinister-presidentmajority of members, plurality constructive vote of no confidenceguideline competencefullyes18

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. Each state government is represented in the Bundesrat by three to six delegates, depending on the state's population.

List of current office-holders

The longest-serving incumbent office-holder is Winfried Kretschmann, who has served as the minister-president of Baden-Württemberg since 12 May 2011. Sven Schulze, the minister-president of Saxony-Anhalt, is the shortest-serving incumbent.

Deputies

The minister-presidents appoint one member of their cabinet as their deputy. In most states the deputy of the minister-president holds the title Deputy Minister-president. In some states, the state constitution allows for the oppointment of more than one deputy. This option is used sometimes in coalition governments with more than two parties, although in this case a hierarchy is usually established between the deputies. Berlin is a special case, as the state constitution there requires the appointment of two equally ranking deputies.
Their duties and functions mirror roughly those of the vice chancellor of Germany on federal level. Most importantly, the deputy minister-president 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, which designates both the deputy minister-president and the President of the Landtag as acting successors. Resigning minister-presidents normally stay in office as acting minister-presidents 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. According to the Federal Constitutional Court Act, the same applies to judges on the Federal Constitutional Court. Simultaneous membership in the Bundestag or the federal government is not prohibited for a minister-president under federal law, but in some states 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.
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-presidents 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 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, 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 under circumstances that have not been clarified to this day. As a result, the previous deputy Henning Schwarz 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 was elected Minister-president on 31 May. Schwarz thus held office as acting Minister-president for 242 days.

Lists of former minister-presidents

Minister-presidents of Lower Saxony (since 1946)

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:
Five out of ten chancellors of Germany have been head of a state before becoming chancellor:
Many more minister-presidents went on to become members of the federal government, EU institutions or judges of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany for example.
The three longest serving office-holders were:
The three shortest serving office-holders were:
The three oldest living office-holders are:
The three youngest living office-holders are:
There have been eight female heads of a German state:
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 and Minister-President of Thuringia
Two persons have been minister-presidents of two states before and after they had merged into one another:
The vast majority former minister-presidents have been members of Germany's two biggest political parties, the center-right CDU and the center-left SPD. However, several other parties have at least once provided a minister-president.
Alliance 90/The Greens:
Centre Party:
Christian People's Party of Saarland:
Free Democratic Party of Germany :
German Party:
The Left:
Three Minister-presidents were independent: