The President of the Reich is elected by the direct vote of all Germans, male and female, who have attained the age of twenty. The term of office is seven years, and there is no limit to the number of terms for which the same President may be elected. Every German who has reached the age of thirty-five is eligible for the Presidency. There is no requirement that he be a natural born citizen, nor even as to the length of time that he must have been a citizen. A limitation of eligibility to natural born citizens, as in the United States constitution, was considered, but was rejected, mainly because it was expected at the time the constitution was adopted that Austria would become a German land, and such a provision would have barred all living Austrians from the Presidency. There was also opposition on general principles from the internationalists of the Left, the most extreme of whom would as soon see a Russian or a Frenchman in the President's chair as a German.
Articles 45 and 46, defining the powers of the President, take over almost bodily articles 11 and 18 of the imperial constitution, which defined the powers of the Kaiser. Like the Kaiser, the President "represents the Reich internationally"; receives and accredits diplomatic representatives; concludes treaties with foreign powers; appoints civil servants and officers of the army and navy, and is commander-in-chief of the country's military and naval forces. In only one important respect are the President's apparent powers less than the Kaiser's were: war can be declared and peace concluded only by act of the Reichstag and Reichsrat. Under the monarchy, a declaration of war required only the assent of the Federal Council and even this was not required if the country had been actually invaded by an enemy. The President has no power of veto over legislation, but he can order that any law be submitted to the people by referendum before it can go into effect. He can dissolve the Reichstag at any time, as could the Kaiser, but only once for the same reason--a limitation to which the Kaiser was not subject. He has the general power to pardon criminals. He can, if public safety and order be threatened, temporarily suspend most of the provisions of the constitution regarding freedom of speech and of the press, the right of assembly, the secrecy of postal and wire communications, freedom of organization, security against search and seizure in one's own dwelling, etc.