The head of the German state is the federal president of Germany. He is elected by the Federal Assembly, which is convened precisely for this purpose. The functions of the federal president, however, are mostly representative: he accredits diplomatic representatives and represents the country on the world stage. Since 2012, Joachim Gauck has held this high public office.
Future head of state
Joachim Gauck was born on January 24, 1940. His hometown is Rostock, a port in northeastern Germany. The father of the future president served as a naval officer, and his mother was an employee of the office. Gauck's parents from the beginning of the 30s of the last century were members of the Nazi party, and his father could not escape the Anglo-American captivity, although he later returned home.
A few years after the end of the war, Joachim's father was already arrested by Soviet counterintelligence: he was suspected of espionage and anti-Soviet activities, as a result of which he was sentenced to lengthy imprisonment and ended up in one of the Siberian camps. Subsequently, Joachim Gauck admitted that the arrest of his father greatly influenced his political views. From a young age, the future president of Germany hated socialism and communist ideas.
Having become an adult and independent member of society, Gauk refused to receive a philological education, which he had been striving for since childhood, and devoted himself entirely to religious and human rights activities. In the 60s he was pastor of the Lutheran church in Mecklenburg. He was called one of the most ardent dissidents of East Germany. In the late 80s, Gauck took an active part in mass demonstrations, the participants of which sought to unite the two German states at all costs.
Gauck quickly began to advance into the leaders of the opposition movement "New Forum", one of the slogans of which was the implementation of democratic reforms in the GDR.
