1959 West German presidential election

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1959 West German presidential election

← 1954 1 July 1959 1964 →

Nominee Heinrich Lübke Carlo Schmid Max Becker Party CDU SPD FDP Electoral vote 517 (1st round) 526 (2nd round) 385 (1st round) 386 (2nd round) 104 (1st round) 99 (2nd round)

President before election Theodor Heuss FDP Elected President Heinrich Lübke CDU

An indirect presidential election (officially the 3rd Federal Convention) was held in West Germany on 1 July 1959. For the first time in the Federal Republic, the incumbent president, Theodor Heuss, was not eligible for reelection. In the buildup to the election, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer initially declared his candidacy, but then withdrew for political reasons. The Christian Democratic Union instead nominated Heinrich Lübke. The Social Democrats nominated Carlo Schmid who had been the party's caucus chair at the Parliamentary Council. The Free Democratic Party nominated the chair of its Bundestag caucus, Max Becker. Like the first contested presidential election ten years prior, it took two rounds to determine a winner. Heinrich Lübke fell two votes short of the absolute majority in the first round, winning the election with 526 votes in the second.