The Presidents of Germany Trivia Quiz

Answer: Theodor Heuss

Theodor Heuss was born on January 31st 1884 in Brackenheim. He first was a member of the Progressive People's Party, then joined the German Democratic Party until eventually becoming a member of the liberal FDP.
In 1949, he became the first president of the newly founded republic, beating the Social Democrat Kurt Schumacher. Defending his office in 1954, he received an overwhelming total of 871 out of 1018 votes, leaving seven opponents with no chance.
When he was first elected, he tried to enforce a new national anthem for the new republic, claiming that the old one, abused by the Nazis, would no longer fit a democracy.
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer obviated the new anthem and enforced that the third stanza of the anthem would become the official anthem.
Knowing that he was defeated, Heuss well tempered accepted the decision.
Although he would have been appreciated in office for a third term, he declined that, stating that this third term would require a change of the constitution which he had worked on.
Heuss died on December 12th 1963 in Stuttgart.

Answer: Heinrich Lübke

Heinrich Lübke, born on October 14th 1894 in Enkhausen, made his first steps in politics in the Deutsche Bauernschaft (German Farming Community), where he became administrator in 1926.
From 1932 to 1933 he was a member of the Prussian Landtag until he lost his mandate when the NSDAP dissolved the Landtag.
After WWII he joined the CDU and became a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1946 and a member of the Bundestag in 1949. He was appointed Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in 1953 and served in the office until becoming president.

In 1959 he was elected as the 2nd President of Germany and served for almost two full terms. After he was diagnosed with cerebral sclerosis, he announced that the election of 1969 would be held two months early, due to his declining health. The disease had caused his infamous slips of the tongue and led to loss of memory.

Lübke died of cancer on April 6th 1972 in Bonn.

Answer: Resign from his office

Gustav Heinemann, born on July 23rd 1899 in Schwelm, started his political career as a member of the CDU. He was mayor of Essen from 1946 to 1949. In 1949 he became Federal Ministry of the Interior. A year later, he resigned from his office when Konrad Adenauer agreed to the Wiederbewaffnung (rearmament) of Germany.

In 1952, he left the CDU and became a founder of the short-lived All-German People's Party that broke up again in 1957 due to lack of success.
Finding a new political home in the SPD in 1957, he became a member of the Bundestag again and held the office of Federal Ministry of Justice from 1966 to 1969.

In 1969 he eventually became President of Germany, serving a full term until 1974. Although he likely would have been voted for a second term in office, he declined due to his age and his declining health. Heinemann died on July 7th 1976 in Essen.

Answer: Chancellor

Walter Scheel, born on July 8th 1919 in Solingen, joined the liberal party (since 1948 called FDP) in 1946. He became a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1950 and kept his mandate until 1954. In 1953 he also became a member of the Bundestag, a mandate he held until becoming president in 1974.
From 1969 to 1974 he was Foreign Minister of Germany and Vice-Chancellor. After Willy Brandt had resigned from his office on May 7th 1974, Scheel was provisional chancellor for nine days until Helmut Schmidt was elected as new chancellor.
On May 15th 1974 he was elected as president, beating Richard von Weizsäcker (CDU) and started his term as President of Germany on July 1st 1974.

Answer: Karl Carstens

Karl Carstens, born on Dezember 14th 1914 in Bremen, studied Law and Political science at several universities and became an accomplished attorney and a Doctor of Laws. In 1948, he started studying at the Yale university, achieving the degree of Master of Law in 1949.

He became a member of the Bundestag in 1972. From 1973 to 1976 he was the leader of the opposition in Bundestag.

After the federal election of 1976, he was elected as President of the Bundestag. Richard Stücklen followed him into the office after Carstens had to resign from his mandate in parliament to become president.

In 1979, he was the nominee in the presidential election for the CDU, winning against the Social Democrat Annemarie Renger who was his only competition.
He turned down the chance of serving a second term in office due to his age.

Carstens died on May 30th 1992.

Answer: Berlin

Berlin is the only city in Germany that calls the office of its mayor "Regierender Bürgermeister". Until 1948, the office was called Oberbürgermeister, as usual in cities, until the Soviets installed an Oberbürgermeister in East-Berlin which lead to the change of the detonation of the office in West-Berlin.

Von Weizsäcker (born on April 15th 1920 in Stuttgart) was the Regierender Bürgermeister of Berlin from 1981 to 1984.

Answer: Federal Supreme Court

Roman Herzog, born on April 5th 1934 in Landshut, was a judge at the Federal Surpreme Court which he became a member of in 1983. He had to resign from his mandate in the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg in favour of his new position as a judge.

In 1987, he became the president of the court and held the position until 1994.
His nomination as candidate for presidency by the CDU in 1994 came by surprise, after former candidate Steffen Heitmann was dropped following dismissive remarks against women and foreigners.

The election had to go into a third round of voting after Herzog and his opponent Johannes Rau had missed the necessary 50% of votes in the first two rounds. Eventually, Herzog beat his opponent with a total of 696 votes (Rau received 605 votes).

Answer: Johannes Rau

Johannes Rau was born on January 16th 1931 in Wuppertal where he was mayor from 1969 to 1970.
He was the head of the state association of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia from 1977 to 1998 and held the office of Prime Minister there from 1978 to 1998.
After losing the race for chancellor to Helmut Kohl in 1987 - the SPD only won 186 seats out of 497 - he didn't aim to become chancellor any more. For the election of 1990, the SPD nominated Oskar Lafontaine as their candidate for chancellor.

For a short term in 1993, he served as provisional leader of his party, after Björn Engholm had resigned from his leadership, until Rudolf Scharping was election as new leader of the party.

After his defeat in 1994, he eventually was elected as new president in 1999. He disclaimed to run for a second term in office due to his fading health.
Rau died on January 27th 2006 in Berlin.

Answer: First president to be politically neutral

Horst Köhler was born in Skierbieszów (Poland) on February 22nd 1943.
Before becoming president, he was the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), based in New York (USA).

He resigned from his office on May 31st 2010, less then a year into his second term in office.

He wasn't politically neutral though, being a member of the Conservative party (CDU).

Answer: Christian Wulff

Wulff had to go into a third round of voting after missing the required majority of more than 50% of the votes. In third round, he won with a total of 625 votes (50.2%).
He was in office as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010. Born in 1959, he became the youngest president of the first ten at the age of 51.
Growing up living with only his mother and his younger sister after both his father and step-father had left the family, he took the responsibility of looking after his mother, who was suffering from multiple sclerosis, at the age of only 16. Wulff later studied law and became an attorney.