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.
Composition of the Federal Convention The president is elected by the Federal Convention consisting of all the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates representing the states. These are divided proportionally by population to each state, and each state's delegation is divided among the political parties represented in its parliament so as to reflect the partisan proportions in the parliament.
By party By statePartyMembersStateMembersCDU/CSU517Bundestag519SPD386Baden-Württemberg70FDP82Bavaria88DP24Berlin21GB/BHE20Bremen6BP6Hamburg17DPS3Hesse44Total1038Lower Saxony62North Rhine-Westphalia147Rhineland-Palatinate32Saarland10Schleswig-Holstein22Total1038 Source: Eine Dokumentation aus Anlass der Wahl des Bundespräsidenten am 18. März 2012
Results CandidatePartiesFirst roundSecond roundVotes%Votes%Heinrich LübkeCDU/CSU, DP51749.853650.7Carlo SchmidSPD38537.138637.2Max BeckerFDP10410.0999.5Abstentions252.4222.1Invalid votes0000Not present70.750.5Total1,03199.31,03399.5Source: Bundestag
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