West German presidential election, 1959

On 1 July 1959, the 3rd Federal Assembly elected the former Food Minister Heinrich Lübke the second President. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had initially even want to run and inform the public thereof in a radio address on April 8, 1959. " The position, role and function of the Federal President ," he explained, " is estimated to be low in the German public and thus also internationally. It is much bigger than you think as such. " Presently, however, Adenauer was clear that he was alone with this assessment and it would also not succeed, Ludwig Erhard to prevent as his successor in the Chancellery, which he considered unsuitable. Therefore he renounced ultimately to the nomination and justified this in a radio address on June 5, 1959 so that now " worsens the foreign policy situation " have. "I think this development is not to be able to justify to leave my present post as Chancellor. "

After long discussions, the CDU / CSU, which decreed in the Federal Assembly 517 seats decided for Luebke, who won 517 votes in the first ballot accordingly. In the second round he was able to win with 526 votes against Carlo Schmid, for the 386 as many votes were cast, as the SPD had seats in the Federal Assembly. The candidate Max Becker of the FDP, which had 82 seats, could win a few of the 59 members of the smaller parties on the left with 102 and 99 votes in the first and second ballot apparently also.