Germany has been represented at every

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

since its inaugural edition in , except in when its entry did not qualify past the audio-only pre-selection round, and consequently did not enter the final and does not count as one of its 68 appearances. No other country has been represented as many times. Along with , , , and the , Germany is one of the " Big Five" countries that are automatically prequalified for the final, due to their participating broadcasters being the largest financial contributors to the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU). The German participating broadcaster in the contest is ARD, who has delegated its participation to different members of the consortium over the years. Germany first won the contest in with " Ein bißchen Frieden" performed by Nicole. The second German victory came 28 years later at the contest, when "

Satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

" performed by Lena won. Katja Ebstein, who finished third in and , then second in , 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 () and twice with the group

Wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

(

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

and

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

), and finishing third with

Mary Roos Mary Roos (born Rosemarie Schwab on 9 January 1949) is a German singer and actress. Biography 1949–1970 Schwab was born in Bingen am Rhein, Bingen. At the age of nine, she recorded her first song "Ja die Dicken sind ja so gemütlich" as ''Di ...

(

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

), Mekado (

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

) and Sürpriz (

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

). Germany has finished last on nine occasions, receiving ''

nul points The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is determined by a positional voting system. The most recent version of the system was implemented in the . Each participating country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, based on th ...

'' in , and . While having not reached the top ten in 15 of the last 20 contests (2005–2025), Michael Schulte achieved Germany's second-best result of the 21st century, by finishing fourth at the 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.

History

The Federal Republic of Germany has participated in the contest since its inception in . Before

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

in 1990, the country was occasionally presented as "

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

". The German Democratic Republic (

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

) did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, and instead took part in the Intervision Song Contest. With one win () and four second-place results (, , , and ), Germany was the second most successful country in the contest in the 1980s, behind Ireland, who had two wins in the decade.

1996 absence

ARD had selected an artist and song to represent them at the , to be held in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

, Norway. Due to the large number of countries wanting to compete at Eurovision, the EBU determined that only 23 of the 30 countries could compete. Hosts Norway qualified automatically, the other 29 songs went into an audio-only pre-qualification round, with the top 22 going on to compete alongside Norway in Oslo. Unfortunately for Germany, its entry, Leon with "Planet of Blue", failed to earn enough points to progress to the final, finishing 24th. ARD and the EBU were not happy with this, as Germany was the biggest financial contributor at the time. This is the only time that Germany has been absent from the contest.

2000s

In the 2000s, Germany has been notable for their adoption of musical styles which are not typical of Eurovision, such as

country and western A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, or d ...

( Texas Lightning – " No No Never" in ) and swing ( Roger Cicero – "" in and Alex Swings Oscar Sings – "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" in ). Germany had some successes throughout the decade, Lou - "Let's Get Happy" came in 11th place out of 26 in and

Stefan Raab Stefan Konrad Raab (born 20 October 1966) is a German entertainer, television host, television producer, and businessman. From 1999 to 2015, he hosted the late-night talk show, late-night comedy talk show ''TV total'' on ProSieben. He also creat ...

came 5th in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

, which was Germany's best placement during the 2000's. Germany tied for last in for points, but was awarded 23rd of 25 places when the results were posted. In 2009, ARD held an internal selection for the first time since 1995 due to lack of interest and viewing figures of the German national finals. Alex Christensen and Oscar Loya were selected to represent Germany at the 2009 contest, where they performed on stage with burlesque artist Dita Von Teese. However they only managed to receive 35 points, placing 20th of 25 competing countries.

2010s

In , ARD approached former entrant and songwriter

and private network

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

to co-operate in finding a winning entry for the country. It has been said that Raab was approached due to his good record at the contest, finishing 5th in as well as writing entries in and , which finished 7th and 8th, respectively. Raab agreed and conducted a TV casting show called which was broadcast on ARD and ProSieben. A winner arose in

Lena Meyer-Landrut Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landrut (; born 23 May 1991), also known by the mononym Lena, is a German singer. She rose to fame after representing Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, winning the event with the song "Satellite (Len ...

with "

", who went on to win the contest. Two further collaborations with ProSieben provided the second and third top ten result in a row respectively in (Lena, who returned to defend her title with " Taken by a Stranger") and ( Roman Lob with "Standing Still"). The streak of top 10 finishes was broken in the contest, when

Cascada Cascada (, Spanish language, Spanish, 'Waterfall'), is a German dance music act founded in 2004 by singer Natalie Horler and DJs/composers/ producers DJ Manian and DJ Yanou. They functioned as a trio from 2004 to 2021, with their last track ...

's song " Glorious" finished 21st with 18 points. The group Elaiza in ,

Ann Sophie Ann-Sophie Dürmeyer (born 1 September 1990), better known as simply Ann Sophie, is a German singer and songwriter. She represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Black Smok ...

in , Jamie-Lee in and Levina in finished in 18th, 27th (last), 26th (last) and 25th (second to last) place respectively. Ann Sophie became the country's third entry to finish with ''nul points'', after

Nora Nova Ahinora Kumanova (; 8 May 1928 – 9 February 2022), better known by the stage name of Nora Nova, was a Bulgarian and German singer. She was the first Bulgarian to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. She represented in . itself first p ...

in and Ulla Wiesner in , and the first since the introduction of the current scoring system in 1975. Germany's luck changed in , when Michael Schulte brought them back to the top 5 for the first time since 2010 with "You Let Me Walk Alone", finishing in fourth place. This is the first time since 2012 that more than one country from the "Big Five" has made the top ten (with Italy finishing fifth) and the second time (after 2002) that two "Big Five" countries have made the top five since the establishment of the rule. , the duo Sisters with the song "Sister" was not able to replicate the same success, receiving no points from the televote and finishing in 25th place with 24 points.

2020s

Three further bottom five results were recorded by Germany at the start of the decade, that of Jendrik in (also receiving no points from the televote), Malik Harris in (receiving no points from the juries) and Lord of the Lost in . This streak was broken by Isaak, whose entry " Always on the Run" placed 12th in with 117 points, and Abor & Tynna, who placed 15th with 151 points in .

Organisation

ARD consortium member (SWR) is participating in the contest representing Germany for onwards. The responsibility within the consortium for the participation in the contest has changed hands between its different members over the years: * Nord-und Westdeutscher Rundfunkverband (NWRV)1956 * (HR)1957, 1959–1961, 1963–1964, 1966–1971, 1973–1977 * (WDR)1958 * (SWF)1962, 1978 * (NDR)1965, 1996–2025 * (SFB)1972, 1991 * (BR)1979–1990 * (MDR)1992–1995 * (SWR)2026 In 1991, SFB worked in partnership with the

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

broadcaster

Deutscher Fernsehfunk Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF; German for "German Television Broadcasting") was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) from 1952 to 1991. DFF produced free-to-air terrestrial television programmin ...

(DFF) to select the German entry for that year's contest. Between 2010 and 2012, private broadcaster worked in partnership with NDR. In 2025,

RTL Deutschland RTL Deutschland (previously ''Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland'') is a German media company based in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It was founded in 2007 as a holding company for the German television, broadcasting and content production busine ...

partnered with NDR. The process to select the German entry in the contest has changed over the years, with both national finals and internal selections (occasionally a combination of both formats) having been held.

Germany and the "Big Five"

Since 1999, Germany, along with , and the , have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final regardless of their results in previous contests. The participating broadcasters from these countries earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU, and subsequently became known as the " Big Four". In 2008, it was reported that the "Big Four" could lose their status and be forced to compete in the semi-finals; however, this never materialised, and the rule remained in place. When

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

returned to the contest in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, it was given the same status, resulting in the countries becoming members of a "Big Five". Germany was the first Big Five country to win the contest after the rule was introduced, courtesy of Lena in . In terms of success, it is currently second behind Italy, which won in with

Måneskin is an Italian Rock music, rock band formed in Rome in 2016. The band is composed of lead vocalist Damiano David, bassist Victoria De Angelis, guitarist Thomas Raggi, and drummer Ethan Torchio. Performing in the streets in their early days, Mån ...

, and finished second in with

Raphael Gualazzi Raffaele Gualazzi (born 11 November 1981), better known as Raphael Gualazzi (), is an Italian singer and pianist. He was born in Urbino. Biography ''Love Outside the Window'' On 16 September 2005, Gualazzi released his first studio album, titled ...

and again in with Mahmood. However, taking into account Italy's absence from the contest for the first 11 years of the rule's existence, Germany remains the only country to have won out of the original "Big Four".

Participation overview

''Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest''

Hostings

Awards

Barbara Dex Award

Related involvement

Conductors

Heads of delegation

Commentators and spokespersons

Over the years, commentary on ARD has been provided by several experienced radio and television presenters, including Ado Schlier,

Thomas Gottschalk Thomas Johannes Gottschalk (born 18 May 1950 in Bamberg) is a German radio and television host and entertainer. He is best known for hosting ''Wetten, dass..?'', for many years Europe's biggest television show, which he steered to huge success i ...

, Jan Hofer, Wolf Mittler, Fritz Egner and Werner Veigel. Peter Urban has provided commentary on

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...

every year since 1997, and has only been absent once, in 2009, when he was forced to step down due to illness, with Tim Frühling from HR filling in to commentate in Moscow. For the later-cancelled contest, Michael Schulte was set to commentate together with Urban. Both commentated the official EBU replacement show '' Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light'' instead, as well as the German replacement show '' Eurovision 2020 – das deutsche Finale'' from the

Elbphilharmonie The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. The new construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave ...

in Hamburg. Urban stepped down as the German commentator after the . His successor is Thorsten Schorn.

Other shows

Photo gallery

File:Eurovision Song Contest 1958 - Margot Hielscher.png,

Margot Hielscher Margot Hielscher (29 September 1919 – 20 August 2017) was a German singer and film actress. She appeared in over fifty films between and 1939 and 1994. Hielscher was born in Berlin. In 1957, she was chosen to represent Germany at the Eurovis ...

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

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Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

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Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

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No Angels No Angels are an all-female Pop music, pop group from Germany, formed in 2000. Originally a quintet, consisting of band members Nadja Benaissa, Ludmilla Diakovska, Lucy Diakovska, Sandy Mölling, Vanessa Petruo, and Jessica Wahls, they originat ...

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

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Sings in

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Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

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Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

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Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

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Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

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Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

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Notes and references

Notes

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Eurovision Club Germany

OGAE Germany
{{Authority control Music competitions in Germany Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest