Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, the Federal Returning Officer ("Bundeswahlleiter") is the

Returning Officer In various parliamentary systems, a returning officer is responsible for overseeing elections in one or more constituencies. Australia In Australia a returning officer is an employee of the Australian Electoral Commission or a state electoral ...

responsible for overseeing

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

on the

federal level Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General * Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies * Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states ...

. The Federal Returning Officer and his deputy are appointed indefinitely by the

Federal Minister of the Interior Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

; traditionally this position has been held by the President of the

Federal Statistical Office of Germany The Federal Statistical Office (german: Statistisches Bundesamt, shortened ''Destatis'') is a federal authority of Germany. It reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The Office is responsible for collecting, processing, presenting and ...

List of federal returning officers

# Gerhard Fürst (1948–1964) # Patrick Schmidt (1964–1972) # Hildegard Bartels (1972–1980) # Franz Kroppenstedt (1980–1983) # Egon Hölder (1983–1992) # Hans Günther Merk (1992–1995) # Johann Hahlen (1995–2006) # Walter Radermacher (2006–2008) # Roderich Egeler (2008–2015) # Dieter Sarreither (2015–2017) # Georg Thiel (2017–present)

External links

Official Web site
Elections in Germany {{Germany-election-stub