2009 in Germany

Incumbents

Federal level

• President – Horst Köhler
• Chancellor – Angela Merkel

  State level

• Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg – Günther Oettinger
• Minister-President of Bavaria – Horst Seehofer
• Governing mayor of Berlin – Klaus Wowereit
• First mayor of Bremen – Jens Böhrnsen
• Minister-President of Brandenburg – Matthias Platzeck
• First mayor of Hamburg – Ole von Beust
• Minister-President of Hesse – Roland Koch
• Minister-President of Lower Saxony – Christian Wulff
• Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – Erwin Sellering
• Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia – Jürgen Rüttgers
• Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate – Kurt Beck
• Minister-President of the Saarland – Peter Müller
• Minister-President of Saxony – Stanislaw Tillich
• Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt – Wolfgang Böhmer
• Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein – Peter Harry Carstensen
• Minister-President of Thuringia – Dieter Althaus

  Events

• 15 January - Germany presses Moscow and Kiev to end the Russian gas crisis.
• 5–15 February - 59th Berlin International Film Festival
• 9 February - Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009
• March - The Volkswagen Polo Mk5 is launched at the Geneva Motor Show and was voted European Car of the Year eight months later.
• 11 March - A 17-year-old former student goes on a rampage at his former school in Winnenden, Germany, killing at least fifteen people, before turning the gun on himself.
• 23 May - 2009 German presidential election
• 15–23 August - 2009 World Championships in Athletics takes place in Berlin. Usain Bolt breaks the world records for 200 metres and 100 metres.
• 30 August - 2009 Saarland state election, 2009 Saxony state election and 2009 Thuringia state election take place
• September - Opel launches new Astra at Frankfurt Motor Show.
• 27 September - 2009 German federal election takes place. Angela Merkel wins reelection as chancellor.
• 27 September - 2009 Schleswig-Holstein state election and 2009 Brandenburg state election take place.
• 28 October - German bishop Margot Käßmann becomes first elected woman as leader of Evangelical Church in Germany.
• 28 October - The Second Merkel cabinet led by Angela Merkel was sworn in.
• 30 October - Christine Lieberknecht becomes Minister-President of state Thuringia.
• 27 November - Wolfgang Schneiderhan, the Chief of Staff of the German Bundeswehr, and Franz Josef Jung resign over allegations that they withheld information in the aftermath of the Kunduz airstrike.
• 30 November - Ursula von der Leyen becomes Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and Kristina Köhler becomes new Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth
• December - Dresdner Bank was acquired by German Commerzbank.

  Deaths

• 5 January - Adolf Merckle, industrialist
• 2 March - Ernst Benda, politician
• 28 March - Helmut Noller, Olympic sprint canoer
• 4 May - Gisela Stein, German actress
• 13 May - Monica Bleibtreu, German actress
• 23 May - Barbara Rudnik, actress
• 9 June - Karl Michael Vogler, actor
• 17 June - Ralf Dahrendorf, sociologist and politician
• 19 June - Joerg Hube, actor
• 30 June - Pina Bausch, choreographer and dancer
• 30 July - Peter Zadek, theatre and film director
• 31 July - Ilona Christen, journalist
• 1 August - Princess Felicitas of Prussia
• 18 August - Hildegard Behrens, opera singer
• 22 August - Horst E. Brandt, film director
• 19 September - Eduard Zimmermann, journalist
• 3 October - Reinhard Mohn, businessman
• 4 October - Guenther Rall, fighter pilot
• 6 October - Werner Maihofer, jurist and legal philosopher
• 9 October - Horst Szymaniak, footballer
• 19 October - Dietrich von Bothmer, art historian
• 10 November - Robert Enke, footballer
• 15 November - Hans Matthöfer, German politician
• 27 November - Erich Böhme, journalist
• 5 December - Otto Graf Lambsdorff, German politician of the Free Democratic Party
• 23 December - Rainer Zepperitz, German double bassist