The (pre-)selection of the Bundestag presidents

from Oliver Kannenberg

DOI: 10.36206/BP2025.03

In the German Bundestag, the office of President is held in particularly high regard. Unlike the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, for example, the presidency of parliament in the Bundestag is not an asset of the majority, i.e. not a top party political office that benefits the majority. Instead, the outstanding importance of the neutrality of the office is always emphasised. This gives rise to a unique profile of requirements that could both attract and deter potentially interested parties. At the same time, this increases the responsibility for the committee, which makes a non-legal, but de facto pre-selection according to changing criteria.

The most important facts in brief:

To date, eleven men and four women have held the second-highest office in the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 1949, the CDU has nominated eleven candidates for the parliamentary presidency, the SPD three and the CSU one. A look at the selection of Bundestag presidents and the criteria on which it is based reveals the following results:

1. In the plenary elections, the opposition groups have so far refrained from
   to put forward an opposing candidate. The last "combat candidacies" took place in 1954, with opponents from the same faction as the later Bundestag president being put forward.
2. The decisive pre-selection takes place within the parliamentary group authorised to nominate candidates. For a long time, the right of nomination within the parliamentary group lay with the parliamentary group executive committee, but has recently been increasingly claimed by the parliamentary group chairmen.
3. Despite the predetermined character and the (so far) stable majority conditions, the candidates must seek support for their person beyond the boundaries of their own parliamentary group.
4. In the past, as today, special attention is paid to the following selection criteria
   the balance between different criteria (in particular gender and regional
   origin). Every decision in favour of or against a candidate must also always be considered in combination with other positions to be filled.
5. It can be stated that experience in Bundestag is a necessary prerequisite for the top position.