Basic ideas of democracy - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1982

The issue of the stamp block is intended to draw the public's attention to the office of Federal President. It follows on from the series entitled "Basic Thoughts of Democracy", which began in 1981 with the three special stamps "Rechtsstaat", "Separation of Powers" and "Volks sovereignty", and is a personified recent history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federal President is the head of state of the Federal Republic of Germany. He is elected by the Federal Assembly for five years. Subsequent re-election is only permitted once. The Federal Assembly consists of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members, who are elected by the popular representatives of the Länder according to the principles of proportional representation. Any German who has the right to vote as a member of the Bundestag and who has reached the age of 40 may be elected as Federal President. The Federal President represents the Federal Republic of Germany under international law. It concludes treaties with foreign states in its name, receives and authenticates the ambassadors and ambassadors of foreign states. He participates in the legislative power to the extent that he executes the laws and has them promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette. He may demand the convening of the Bundestag and dissolve the Bundestag if he does not elect a Chancellor by a majority of his members, or if the German Chancellor's application for confidence does not meet the approval of the same majority of the Bundestag. The Federal President can declare the legislative emergency with the approval of the Bundesrat for a bill of the Federal Government and thereby put the law into force against the will of the Bundestag. The Federal President appoints and dismisses the Federal Chancellor, the Federal Ministers, the Parliamentary State Secretaries, the Federal Constitutional Court judges, officials and judges in the Federal Service and the soldiers, unless otherwise provided by law and he has not exercised his right of delegation. For the federal government he exercises the pardon. He is representative of the honorary sovereignty of the federation. In this capacity he gives medals and decorations. The Federal President is responsible for announcing the decision of the Bundestag or the Joint Committee that the case of defense has occurred. He is also the organ of promulgation of the decision of the Bundestag on the termination of the defense case. All orders and orders of the Federal President must be countersigned by the Federal Chancellor or the responsible Federal Minister. The counterpart takes over the political responsibility.