[1][2][3][4] On 19 February 2012, Joachim Gauck was nominated as the joint presidential candidate of the governing coalition (CDU, CSU, and FDP) and the opposition (SPD and Greens).

[7] Later, it was alleged that President Wulff had applied undue pressure to Springer Press to delay or even prevent initial revelations of the loan scandal.

[8] By the beginning of January 2012, President Wulff had already lost public support, commentators were calling for him to resign, the opposition was again increasing pressure, and his own party was distancing itself from him over the allegations.

[9] On 4 January 2012, Wulff said in an interview that he wanted to stay in office and that the call to Bild editor Kai Diekmann had been a "serious mistake" that was "unworthy" of a president and for which he had already apologized.

[10][11] As more allegations of possible corruption emerged, the prosecutors in Hanover asked the Bundestag to lift Wulff's presidential immunity in order to investigate the possible granting or accepting of undue favors.

In the week prior to the election, Die Zeit also said that Gauck could teach Germans that "we can learn that democracy means thinking and acting for one's self rather than waiting for political redeemers.

[19] The National Democratic Party of Germany nominated Olaf Rose, a historian who works as an adviser to the group of the NPD in the Landtag of Saxony.