Election of the German Federal President 1979

Election of the German Federal President 1979
Candidates				Votes in%
Karl Carstens			51.0
Annemarie Renger			41.6
Abstentions			6.9

Karl Carstens, 1973

Annemarie Renger, 1973

On May 23, 1979, the 7th Federal Assembly elected the President of the Bundestag Karl Carstens as the fifth Federal President .

As a former member of the NSDAP, Carstens was quite controversial. After the CDU and CSU had announced his nomination on March 6, 1979 with their clear majority of 531 seats in the Federal Assembly, the incumbent Federal President Walter Scheel decided not to run for re-election. The former President of the Bundestag Annemarie Renger, nominated by the SPD (438 seats), was the first woman to run for office.

Carstens prevailed in the first ballot with 528 votes against Renger with 431 votes and 72 abstentions. Most of the abstentions were due to the 66 members of the FDP, who had decided not to vote for either candidate.

Election day May 23, 1979 was the thirtieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Basic Law and the following elections for the Federal President also took place on May 23. Only after the resignation of Federal President Horst Köhler on May 31, 2010 had to deviate from this and the election of the successor in accordance with Article 54, Paragraph 4 of the Basic Law had to be held on June 30, 2010 at the latest thirty days later.

Bonn, May 23, 1979 - total number of members 1036 - absolute majority 519

Ballot	candidate	Number of votes	%	Political party
1st ballot	Karl Carstens	528	51.0%	CDU
	Annemarie Renger	431	41.6%	SPD
	Abstentions	72	6.9%
	Invalid	1	0.1%
	No voting	4th	0.4%
Karl Carstens was thus elected Federal President.

Web links

• Documentation 7th Federal Assembly (23 May 1979) on bundestag.de
• Information about the Federal Assembly on the homepage of the Bundestag