Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest

Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	ARD[a] Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; 1965, 1996–) Former members ARD consortium members: Nord- und Westdeutscher Rundfunkverband [de] (NWRV; 1956) Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; 1957, 1959–1961, 1963–1964, 1966–1971, 1973–1977) Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR; 1958) Südwestfunk (SWF; 1962, 1978) Sender Freies Berlin (SFB; 1972, 1991) Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; 1979–1990) Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR; 1992–1995)
Participation summary
Appearances	67
First appearance	1956
Highest placement	1st: 1982, 2010
Host	1957, 1983, 2011
Participation history 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
External links
NDR page
Germany's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Germany has officially participated in every Eurovision Song Contest since its inaugural edition in 1956, except in 1996 when its entry did not qualify past the audio-only pre-selection round, and consequently was not seen in the broadcast final and does not count as one of Germany's 67 appearances. No other country has been represented as many times. Along with France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, Germany is one of the "Big Five" countries that are automatically prequalified for the final, due to their participant broadcasters being the largest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The final is broadcast in Germany on ARD's flagship channel, Das Erste.

Germany first won the contest in 1982 with "Ein bißchen Frieden" performed by Nicole. The second German victory came 28 years later at the 2010 contest, when "Satellite" performed by Lena won. Katja Ebstein, who finished third in 1970 and 1971, then second in 1980, is the only performer to have made the top three on three occasions. Germany has a total of 11 top three placements, also finishing second with Lena Valaitis (1981) and twice with the group Wind (1985 and 1987), and finishing third with Mary Roos (1972), Mekado (1994) and Sürpriz (1999). Germany has finished last on ten occasions, receiving nul points in 1964, 1965 and 2015.

While having not reached the top-ten in 14 of the last 19 contests (2005–24), Michael Schulte achieved Germany's second-best result of the 21st century, by finishing fourth at the 2018 contest. Although German contestants have had varied levels of success, public interest remains high and the contest is one of the most-watched events each year.^[1]

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