Minister president (Germany)

The Minister-president (Ministerpräsident, ) is the head of state and 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 (Staatspräsident).
 * 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).

Nevertheless, in Germany, it is common to refer to all sixteen heads of the states as minister-presidents, if 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 (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 minister-presidents 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 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, 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 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 minister-presidents 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. Resigning minister-presidents normally stay in office as acting minister-presidents (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.

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 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.

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. Alexander Schweitzer, the Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate (since 10 July 2024), is the shortest-serving incumbent.

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, Governing Mayor of Berlin (1981–1984)
 * Johannes Rau, 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 has been head of a state before becoming President:
 * Kai-Uwe von Hassel, 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, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg (1958–1966)
 * Willy Brandt, Governing Mayor of West-Berlin (1957–1966)
 * Helmut Kohl, Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1969–1976)
 * Gerhard Schröder, Minister-President of Lower Saxony (1990–1998)
 * Olaf Scholz, 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, State President of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (1948–1952), Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg (1953–1958)

Many more minister-presidents 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, 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, 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 (2013–2024)
 * Manuela Schwesig, Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (incumbent since 2017)
 * Franziska Giffey, Governing Mayor of Berlin (2021–2023)
 * 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 minister-presidents 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, 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 between 2008 and 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 and 2013, has been the first office-holder with dual nationality (Germany and United Kingdom).

The vast majority former minister-presidents have been members of Germany's two biggest political parties, the center-right CDU (or, in Bavaria, its sister party CSU) and the center-left SPD. However, several other parties (including all parties currently represented in the Bundestag, apart from the AfD and BSW) have at least once provided a minister-president.

Alliance 90/The Greens:
 * Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg (since 2011)

Centre Party:
 * Rudolf Amelunxen, Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia (1946–1947)

Christian People's Party of Saarland:
 * Johannes Hoffmann, Minister-President of Saarland (1947–1955)

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)

German Party:
 * Heinrich Hellwege, Minister-President of Lower Saxony (1955–1959)

The Left:
 * Bodo Ramelow, Minister-President of Thuringia (2014–2020 and since 2020)

Two Minister-presidents where independent:
 * Erich Vagts, President of the Senate and Mayors of Bremen (1945)
 * Heinrich Welsch, Minister-President of Saarland (1955–1956)