Germany's postwar presidents

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a former foreign minister and chancellor candidate for the Social Democrats (SPD), was supported in his first election by the grand coalition of his party and Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

A former Lutheran pastor, Gauck came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany. A political independent, after German reunification he was in charge of the archives of East Germany's Stasi secret service and tasked with investigating communist crimes. As son of a Soviet Gulag survivor, his political life was formed by his own family's experiences with totalitarianism

Christian Wulf (CDU) was Germany's youngest president to date. He is remembered for a high-profile speech he delivered in which he said that Islam "belongs to Germany" just as do Christianity and Judaism. The former State Premier of Lower Saxony stepped down in the face of corruption allegations, of which he was subsequently cleared.

A trained economist, Horst Köhler served as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before becoming German president. He stepped down over backlash against comments he made about Bundeswehr missions abroad, which he acknowledged also served to secure trade with Germany's partners.

Johannes Rau (SPD) served as premier of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, for ten years. As president, in times of heated political discussion, he urged the nation to open up to foreigners. "I want to be the president for all Germans and the partner for all people who live and work here without a German passport," he said.

The former Supreme Court judge is best known for a speech in 1997 demanding Germans pull themselves together and break the vicious circle of resignation, reform blockade. He is also remembered for asking Poland for forgiveness for the suffering inflicted by Germany in WW2, and declared the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, as Germany's official day of remembrance.

In 1985 the CDU politician articulated Germany's responsibility for the crimes of Nazism. He defined May 8 as a "day of liberation" and challenged the idea that many Germans did not know about the Holocaust. "We Germans must look truth straight in the eye – without embellishment and without distortion. [...] There can be no reconciliation without remembrance," he said.

Karl Carstens (CDU) was born in Bremen, the son of a commercial school teacher, who had been killed before his birth in WWI. Carstens studied law and political science and served in the air force during WWII. In 1940 he joined the Nazi Party, which made him a controversial choice for president. During his term in office he used his love of hiking to tour the country and meet the people.

Scheel was born in Solingen, the son of a handyman. He trained at a bank before he was conscribed by Hitler's Wehrmacht in 1939. After the war, Scheel worked as an economic consultant and joined the neoliberal FDP, which he moved towards an alliance with the SPD. Scheel was seen as jovial and is remembered for landing a hit with his recording of the German folk song "Hoch auf dem gelben Wagen."

Gustav Walter Heinemann (SPD) served as mayor of Essen, as well as interior and later justice minister before becoming president. He established the tradition of inviting ordinary citizens to the president's New Year's receptions, and in his speeches, he encouraged West Germans to overcome submissiveness to the authorities, to make full use of their democratic rights and to defend the rule of law.

Heinrich Lübke (CDU) is remembered for a series of embarrassing lapses that may have resulted from health issues. Lübke resigned three months before the scheduled end of his second term amid a scandal around his involvement with the Nazi regime during World War II.

The liberal Theodor Heuss (FDP) beat Social Democrat leader Kurt Schumacher to become West Germany's first postwar president. Before becoming a politician he was a political journalist. West Germans widely appreciated Heuss for his cordial nature.