Law on the Federal President's Pensions

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Basic data
Title: Law on the Federal President's Pensions
Abbreviation: BPresRuhebezG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Constitutional law
References : 1100-2
Original version from: June 17, 1953 ( BGBl. I p. 406 )
Entry into force on: June 21, 1953
Last revision from: February 5, 2009
Last change by: Art. 15 para. 2 G of February 5, 2009
( BGBl. I p. 160 )
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The law on the Federal President's pensions (BPrasRuhebezG) regulates the remuneration of the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany after his retirement from office .

The law was issued on June 17, 1953 and was last amended by the law of February 5, 2009.

content

The law on the Federal President's pensions contains seven paragraphs .

§ 1 regulates the entitlement to pension payments, d. H. the eligibility requirements and the amount of the remuneration and makes it clear that this remuneration is an honorary salary .

Sections 2 to 6 govern the claims of the surviving dependents of a federal or former president, credit issues and the claims of the president in the event of a presidential charge. Section 7 regulates the entry into force.

The right to a pension

According to § 1, the former president is entitled to an honorary salary if he resigns from his office “at the end of his term of office or before for political or health reasons”.

Motivated for political reasons, for example, a resignation applies in the event of fundamental divergences between the Federal Government and the Federal President on central domestic or foreign policy issues, so that the President believes that he no longer represents the politics of the Federal Government or the majority of the Bundestag and no longer signs the relevant laws ( Art. 82 1 sentence 1 GG ), to no longer represent the Federation under international law or to be able to conclude treaties with foreign states ( Art. 59 GG).

Resignation for health reasons is not only possible in the event of incapacity for work in the sense of civil service law , but also if the Federal President is in severe health problems and can therefore only no longer exercise his office for a transitional period, i.e. not necessarily permanently.

The Federal President is also entitled to honorary pay if he resigns at the end of his first or second term , i.e. even if he is not running again or is not re-elected as a candidate after the end of the first term.

It is unclear whether the former president is also entitled to honorary pay in the event of a resignation for reasons other than those provided for by law, or how this question is raised in the event of a possible mixed situation , i.e. H. is to be assessed if the resignation is not clearly to be assessed as resignation for personal reasons. This question arose for the first time on the occasion of the resignation of Federal President Wulff in February 2012 .

"Other" reasons are mainly private or personal reasons (reasons that are rooted in the person of the public official) - such as the resignation of a president in order to concentrate on his private life or to reorient himself professionally.

Amount of honorary salary

The amount of the honorary salary of the former president is measured according to § 1 on the "amount of the official remuneration with the exception of the expense allowances". The sum currently amounts to 214,000 euros per year. The additional expense allowance of 78,000 euros (as of January 2013), however, is only available to the incumbent, not the former presidents.

In addition to the honorary salary, the former president according to § 5 Claims for aid in accordance with the Federal Aid Ordinance applicable to federal civil servants .
Official remuneration and honorary pay are subject in full to income and church tax up to the respective top tax rate.

Honorary pay for presidential charges

A special regulation takes effect according to § 5 if the Federal Constitutional Court declares a Federal President guilty according to Article 61 of the Basic Law on the basis of a presidential charge of willful violation of the Basic Law or another federal law and therefore declares him “forfeited”. In this case, the court decides "whether and in what amount the remuneration provided for in this law is to be granted".

Other provisions

If the former president was or is still active in the public service before or after his office as Federal President and receives service income, a pension or a similar pension, these will be offset against the honorary salary in accordance with Section 3.

On March 20, 2019, the budget committee of the Bundestag decided that, according to current law, income of former federal presidents from employment outside the public service should also be offset against the honorary salary, because Section 4 of the law refers to the law on civil servants. The committee has thus joined a controversial legal opinion of the Federal Audit Office, which refers to the history of the law. Since a change in the law, for which the Interior Committee of the Bundestag would be responsible, is apparently not intended, it remains to be seen whether a change in administrative practice would stand up to judicial review. The Scientific Services of the Bundestag tended to take the opposite view, namely that § 3 contains a final credit regulation, which is why the reference in § 4 cannot extend to it. The previous administrative practice of the Office of the Federal President and the rejected draft law of the SPD parliamentary group, which therefore provided for a change in the law, was based on this.

In the event of the death of the Federal President or a former President, the surviving dependents receive the honorary pay for three months after the month of death as a death benefit as well as "a widow's and orphan's benefit calculated from the honorary pay".

Previous regulations

In the Weimar Republic , the law on the pension of the Reich President of December 31, 1922 was applicable.After this, a resigned Reich President continued to receive the full salary for up to three months, then 75% of the salary for one year, and then until the end of his life 50 % of it as "honorary pay". Such a regulation initially also applied in the Federal Republic (from 1953 to 1959). Since both Reich Presidents died in office and Federal President Theodor Heuss was in office until 1959, this regulation did not apply.

Change for Konrad Adenauer 1959

The level of remuneration as set out in the current regulation was introduced in 1959. In order to make a move to the Federal President's office more attractive for the aging Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , the Bundestag doubled the honorary salary from 50% to 100% of the previous salary in 1959. However, Adenauer withdrew his candidacy and remained Chancellor until 1963.

Debate about the granting of honorary pay to former President Wulff

Christian Wulff in March 2011

On the occasion of the resignation of Federal President Christian Wulff on February 17, 2012, the question arose as to whether Wulff met the conditions for granting honorary pay. The ongoing debate on this is mainly centered around three points:

  • Is there a right to honorary pay for reasons other than those specified in the law, in particular for personal reasons?
  • How could political and personal reasons be separated from one another?
  • Who decides whether the prerequisites for the award of honorary pay are met in the event of an early departure from office?

Withdrawal for reasons other than those stated in the law

In the event of a resignation for reasons other than those listed in the law, the fundamental question arises whether there is then (at all) a claim to honorary pay. Section 1 of the law does not name resignation for personal or private reasons as a reason that would result in honorary pay.

In the opinion of Hans Herbert von Arnim , a Federal President therefore does not receive an honorary salary if he resigns for reasons other than those listed in the law. The development history of the law also speaks for this. The legal deliberations at the beginning of the 1950s showed that the Bundestag and Bundesrat had assumed that the three reasons stated in the law were final (enumerative) and that there was no entitlement to honorary pay in the event of a differently motivated resignation. Another argument against a claim to honorary pay is the fact that the Federal President's pensions were regulated closely following the provisions of the “Law on the Retirement Pension of the Reich President” of December 31, 1925, and according to the previous law “a Reich President who resigned for personal reasons only” was not entitled to the retirement pension.

The Leipzig constitutional lawyer Christoph Degenhart points out that the law does not expressly regulate whether a Federal President loses his honorary salary if he resigns for personal reasons. In this respect, there is a loophole.

In several reports, the Scientific Service of the German Bundestag comes to the conclusion that "the reasons underlying the president's private conduct are not political reasons". Rather, these should be related to the shaping of public life. Serious differences over the government's domestic or foreign policy are cited as an example.

Differentiation of political and personal reasons

The second fundamental question is the question of the (unambiguous) demarcation between a (claim-based) politically motivated resignation and resignation for personal reasons. The problem is particularly evident when resigning under public pressure. In these cases, the question arises as to whether and to what extent the President himself “provoked” this pressure, for example through (proven or alleged) misconduct in office or before his term in office. Against this background, von Arnim sees Wulff's resignation as purely personally motivated. Others believe that the resignation is based (largely) on political reasons, such as Peter Altmaier , according to whose statement Wulff declared that in the end he no longer found the necessary public support for his work. Also Ulrich Battistelli believes that a politically motivated withdrawal is obvious.

Christoph Degenhart points out that when the President resigns, it is sometimes not possible to clearly differentiate between personal and political reasons, as the office is very closely linked to the person. Personal reasons are then "in one way or another, ultimately also political reasons", the claim to honorary pay is therefore given.

Decision about the honorary salary

Who has to decide whether a former Federal President is entitled to an honorary salary is - due to the lack of previous case law and literature - controversial. In Arnims' view, this assessment is made by the Federal Government. Although it has a certain margin of appreciation , it is not allowed to decide at political discretion, but is bound by law and justice in accordance with Art. 20 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law . Jürgen Koppelin, however, is of the opinion that the budget committee of the Bundestag is responsible. It would also be justifiable that the Office of the Federal President , which decides on the initial calculation and setting of the honorary salary, determines whether the requirements are met. According to Hans Meyer , the Federal Ministry of the Interior is responsible for this question. There will still be great uncertainty here pending clarification.

A judicial review of this decision is only possible to a limited extent. The Federal Audit Office largely monitors the legality of the decision .

Resignation in the second term

Former President Horst Köhler resigned in 2010 during his second term in office, but according to Bild am Sonntag he waives his honorary salary.

The question of how to proceed in the event of a resignation for personal reasons within the second term of office is of a more fundamental nature . According to von Arnim, the former president would be entitled to honorary pay in such a case. The President has then not resigned from office for one of the reasons mentioned in § 1. If he were at the end of his term of office , i. H. retired immediately after the first electoral term, he would be entitled to honorary pay. With the expiry of the first electoral term, a right to honorary pay was basically earned, so that the personally motivated resignation does not remove the fundamental right.

criticism

The then presidential candidate Wulff was the first to express public criticism of the level of the supply in 2010 in response to a question from ZDF editor-in-chief Peter Frey . Afterwards, the party critic von Arnim spoke out in favor of a reduction to 70% if one did not want to return to the 1953 version of the law, i.e. a permanent supply of 50%, which was demanded by the taxpayers' association .

The criticism initially had no consequences. It was not until Wulff's resignation, after a term of less than two years, that a broad discussion about the pension scheme triggered. The then President of the Bundestag Lammert called for a new regulation with a “convincing connection between term of office, age and pension entitlement”.

However, only the SPD parliamentary group introduced a bill in November 2012 that provided for a tiered pension entitlement. However, several rapporteur meetings of the Interior Committee did not lead to an agreement, which is why the bill was ultimately rejected by all the other groups. Despite declarations of intent to the contrary in this debate, the issue was not taken up again by the political groups in the following parliamentary term. In November 2013, had national party of the SPD decided to calling for new rules, in which the duration of the term is to be considered. In addition, the Petitions Committee of the German Bundestag has repeatedly spoken out in favor of reform for two electoral terms.

It was not until the report by the Federal Audit Office of September 18, 2018 to the Budget Committee that public attention was drawn to the problem again. The AfD parliamentary group then introduced a bill to restore the version of the law from 1953 and to create a legal basis for the crediting of income from private employment. Since a speaker from this parliamentary group used the first reading of the draft law to voice violent attacks against Federal President Steinmeier and his predecessors in office, the failure of the initiative became apparent, although other parliamentary groups generally did not deny the need for reform.

Continuing office equipment for the performance of subsequent tasks

The benefits in the context of the so-called post-operative office equipment, which are also granted to other office holders to different extents in state practice, are not to be regarded as provision and are not regulated by law. B. Former Federal Chancellors and Bundestag Presidents.

literature

  • Jens Aßmann, The Salaries and Benefits of the Federal President , Hamburg 2014
  • Hans Herbert von Arnim : The Federal President - criticism of the election process and the financial status. NVwZ - Extra 5/2012, March 12, 2012 ( online , PDF; 168 kB).

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Law on the Federal President's Pension Fund of June 17, 1953 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 406 ).
  2. ↑ Law on the reorganization and modernization of federal service law (Service Law Reform Act - DNeuG) of February 5, 2009 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 160 ).
  3. ↑ How is the Federal President paid? Office of the Federal President, June 29, 2014, accessed on June 29, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Crediting of earned income to the honorary salary of the former Federal President, elaboration of May 29, 2018, WD 3 - 3000 - 167/18, p. 5
  5. ↑ RGBl. 1923 I p. 53, see also the full text at Wikisource.
  6. ↑ a b Michael Clasen: Honor salary unbearably high. (No longer available online.) In: NOZ . June 29, 2010, archived from the original on February 20, 2012 ; Retrieved February 21, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.noz.de
  7. ↑ Lutz Polanz, Sandra Schmidt: Thanks to Adenauer: How the honorary pay became honorary gold. (PDF; 65 kB) In: Monitor (TV magazine) . March 1, 2012, accessed March 5, 2012 .
  8. ↑ Severin Weiland: My salary, my car, my office. In: Der Spiegel . March 2, 2012, Retrieved March 5, 2012 .
  9. ^ A b c d e Hans Herbert von Arnim: Why the Federal President cannot resign. in: New Journal for Administrative Law - Extra , Issue 4/2012. Available online here (PDF; 84 kB).
  10. ↑ a b c Causa Wulff: Ehrensold debate separates the constitutional lawyers. In: Tagesschau . February 18, 2012, archived from the original on February 19, 2012 ; Retrieved February 21, 2012 .
  11. ^ Stephan Löwenstein: Expert opinion on Wulff's honorary salary after resignation. In: FAZ . February 12, 2012, accessed February 23, 2012 .
  12. ↑ a b Honorary pay uncertain for Wulff. In: The West . February 12, 2010, accessed February 23, 2012 .
  13. ^ Johannes Wiedemann: 199,000 euros that divide all of Germany. In: The world . February 19, 2012, accessed February 21, 2012 .
  14. ^ Die Ehrensold-Posse , Spiegel Online, February 20, 2012, accessed on February 20, 2012.
  15. ↑ Order for the transfer of responsibilities in the areas of federal civil service provision and equalization of services (Official Service Responsibility Order - BeamtVZustAnO), Annex 1, footnote 8 . Retrieved February 20, 2012.
  16. ↑ President's office decides on Wulff's honorary salary , Spiegel Online, February 20, 2012, accessed on February 20, 2012.
  17. ↑ Transitional allowance for the former president . FAZ, March 8, 2012. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
  18. ^ Tom Stiebert: Honorary salary for Federal President Christian Wulff. In: juraexamen.info. February 12, 2012, accessed February 21, 2012 .
  19. ↑ Horst Köhler waives Ehrensold , Spiegel Online , March 4, 2012, accessed on March 15, 2012.
  20. ↑ Interview on June 21, 2010
  21. ^ Lammert calls for a new regulation of the honor sold , Zeit Online , March 7, 2012
  22. ^ Draft of a law amending the law on the pension of the Federal President, printed matter 17/11593 of November 20, 2012
  23. ↑ Plenary minutes 17/246 of June 13, 2013, page 205 ff.
  24. ↑ Resolutions of the regular federal party congress of the SPD, Leipzig, November 14-16, 2013, p. 88
  25. ^ Report of the Petitions Committee, requests and complaints to the German Bundestag, printed matter 19/2250 of June 6, 2018 , p. 19 f.
  26. ↑ Report in accordance with § 88 Para. 2 BHO on the examination of the supply and equipment of the former Federal President, Federal Chancellor and Bundestag President - partial examination of the Federal President
  27. ^ Draft of a law amending the law on the pension of the Federal President, printed matter 19/5490 of November 19, 2018
  28. ↑ Plenary Minutes 19/61 of November 8, 2018, page 6957
  29. ^ Recommendation for a resolution and report by the Committee on Home Affairs and Home Affairs, printed matter 19/8858 of April 1, 2019