King of the Castle

GKM - Washington   Today, the headline of the German magazine Spiegel proclaims with an allusion to Schloss Bellevue, Berlin residence of Germanys President, that The Castle is Looking for a Boss. Federal president, Bundespräsident, Horst Köhler set political Germany in a state of shock after resigning yesterday from office and hereby leaving Germany without a head of state. Köhler is not the first president to finish his time in office preterm by resigning, but the first to do so with immediate effect. The German constitution, Grundgesetz, GG, provides exact procedural rules for this situation: Pursuant to Art. 54 IV GG, new elections have to take place within 30 calendar days. In the meantime, the president of the federal council, Bundesrat, will be the acting president of the federation, Art. 57 GG. Unlike the President of the United States of America, the Bundespräsident serves only as the head of state, but not as head of government. He is not elected by the people -- neither directly nor through electorals -- but by a constitutional organ, an electoral committee called the Bundesversammlung, Art. 54 I GG, whose sole purpose is the election of the federal president. Half of its members are members of the German Parliament, Bundestag. The 16 state parliaments, Landtage, then dispatch an equal numer of delegates. The number of delegates that each state can send to the election is proportional to its population figure. The number of the members …