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The President by right of age (Alterspräsident) is the longest-serving member of the german Bundestag (until 2017 the oldest by age).

Role
The role of the President by right of age is defined in the standing rules of the Bundestag: Currently (since 2017), the position is held by the longest-serving member of parliament, with discontinuous terms of office being added together. If two members of parliament have been in office for the same length of time, age is decisive. Before a change to the standing rules in 2017, the position was held by the oldest member. He or she shall preside over the Bundestag during the opening session of each legislative term until the President of the Bundestag has been elected; for this purpose, he is authorized to appoint temporary secretaries, who remain in office until the election of regular secretaries in a later session. Apart from the opening session, he or she shall also preside over the Bundestag at any given time, if both the President and all Vice Presidents are incapable of attending. However, the latter case has never occurred, as of 2024.

It is common practice for the President by right of age to give the first speech of the new legislative period, in which he outlines what he considers to be important tasks for Parliament in the coming years.

There have been cases in which the longest-serving or oldest MP has declined to hold the position: Konrad Adenauer, for example, who was the oldest member of the Bundestag for many years, set the precedent of a sitting chancellor renouncing the dignity. In this case, according to standing rules, he is replaced by the MP who has served the second longest time (previously: the next oldest).

Weblinks
Standing rules of the German Bundestag

List Vice Chancellors
In the federal system of the Federal Republic of Germany, the state parliaments embody the legislative power in the sixteen states. In thirteen of the sixteen German states, the state parliament is known as the Landtag (an old German term that roughly means state parliament). In the states Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, the state parliament is called Bürgerschaft (Citizenry), in Berlin it is called Abgeordnetenhaus (House of Representatives).

Election process, constitutional functions 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 and that the people in every state must have an elected representation, without giving further details (Article 28.1). In practice, all states are parliamentary republics in which the legislative branch of government is assigned to an elected parliament. Since the abolition of the Bavarian Senate in 1999, all sixteen state parliaments are unicameral.

Among the most important functions of the state parliaments are the election of the Minister President, the control of the state government and the adoption of state laws. They have no influence on federal legislation, but participate in the election of the President of Germany by electing state electors to the Federal Convention.

In terms of these functions, the state parliaments work very similarly. However, there are also some significant differences between the states. This begins with the electoral system: Similar to federal elections, many states use a mixed-member proportional representation system in which each voter casts one vote for a constituency candidate and a second vote determines the proportional share of seats. However, this is not the case in all states, the main exception being Baden-Württemberg, which uses a complex first-past-the-post voting system in which seats are allocated to "lucky-loser" candidates in addition to the elected constituency candidates in order to establish proportionality. In all states there is a 5%-threshold which must be exceeded for a party to be considered in the proportional distribution of seats, although in Bremen it is sufficient to exceed the threshold in only one of the two cities that make up the state (Bremen City and Bremerhaven). The electoral system of some states also includes a basic mandate clause which allows parties to be taken into account in the proportional distribution of seats regardless of the 5%-threshold if they win a certain number of constituencies. As at the federal level, parties representing national minorities are excluded from both the 5%-threshold and the basic mandate clause. This provision is of particular importance in Schleswig-Holstein, where the SSW, a party which represents the minorities of Danes and Frisians, regularly participates in state elections.

In contrast to the Bundestag on federal level, all states have adopted legislative periods of five years, with the sole exception of Bremen, which still uses four-year-terms (a cross-party attempt to introduce five-year-terms was defeated in a referendum in 2017 ). Another difference to the Bundestag are the conditions for early new elections: While the Bundestag does not have the right of self-dissolution and can only be dissolved by the President of Germany (and even this only under certain conditions which are precisely defined in the Basic Law), the state parliaments have the right of self-dissolution (even if the procedure differs according to the state constitutions). In addition to this, some state constitutions also provide for an automatic dissolution of the parliament in certain situations and in some states, the parliament can also be dissolved by a referendum. Neither an automatic dissolution nor a dissolution by referendum has ever happened in any state, though.

List of current Minister Presidents of Germany.

ARTICLE:

The Minister President is the head of state and government of a German state. In the three states of Berlin, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg the heads of the state hold different titles: Governing Mayor of Berlin, President of the Senate and Mayor of Bremen and First Mayor of Hamburg. Nevertheless, in Germany it is common practice, to call the 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 it's own constitution. Although 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 the state parliament, but while in some states a majority of parliament members is needed for a succesful election, in other states a simple majority (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 dermine the cabinet's political guidelines, but this is not the case in Bremen, were 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.

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 3 to 6 delegates, depending on the state's population.

Deputies
In most states the deputy of the Minister President holds the title Deputy Minister President, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein have a higher ranking First Deputy Minister President and a lower ranking Second 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.

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. 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)

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)

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.

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, 7th 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:
 * Bernhard Vogel, 4th Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate (1976-1988) and 2nd Minister President of Thuringia (1992-2003)