Germany has been represented at everyEurovision Song Contest since its inaugural edition in1956, except in1996 when its entry did not qualify past the audio-only pre-selection round, and consequently did not enter the final and does not count as one of its 68 appearances. No other country has been represented as many times. Along withFrance,Italy,Spain, and theUnited Kingdom, Germany is one of the "Big Five" countries that are automatically prequalified for the final, due to their participating broadcasters being the largest financial contributors to theEuropean Broadcasting Union (EBU). The German participating broadcaster in the contest isARD,[a] which has delegated its participation to different members of the consortium over the years.
Germany first won the contest in1982 with "Ein bißchen Frieden" performed byNicole. The second German victory came 28 years later at the2010 contest, when "Satellite" performed byLena won.Katja Ebstein, who finished third in1970 and1971, then second in1980, is the only performer to have made the top three on three occasions. Germany has a total of 11 top three placements, also finishing second withLena Valaitis (1981) and twice with the groupWind (1985 and1987), and finishing third withMary Roos (1972),Mekado (1994) andSürpriz (1999). Germany has finished last on nine occasions, receivingnul points in1964,1965 and2015.
While having not reached the top ten in 15 of the last 20 contests (2005–2025),Michael Schulte achieved Germany's second-best result of the 21st century, by finishing fourth at the2018 contest. Although German contestants have had varied levels of success, public interest remains high and the contest is one of the most-watched events each year.[2]
The Federal Republic of Germany has participated in the contest since its inception in1956.[3] BeforeGerman reunification in 1990, the country was occasionally presented as "West Germany". The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) did not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, and instead took part in theIntervision Song Contest.
With one win (1982) and four second-place results (1980,1981,1985, and1987), Germany was the second most successful country in the contest in the 1980s, behind Ireland, who had two wins in the decade.
ARD had selected an artist and song to represent them at the1996 contest, to be held inOslo, Norway. Due to the large number of countries wanting to compete at Eurovision, the EBU determined that only 23 of the 30 countries could compete. Hosts Norway qualified automatically, the other 29 songs went into an audio-only pre-qualification round, with the top 22 going on to compete alongside Norway in Oslo. Unfortunately for Germany, its entry,Leon with "Planet of Blue", failed to earn enough points to progress to the final, finishing 24th. ARD and the EBU were not happy with this, as Germany was the biggest financial contributor at the time. This is the only time that Germany has been absent from the contest.
In the 2000s, Germany has been notable for their adoption of musical styles which are not typical of Eurovision, such ascountry and western (Texas Lightning – "No No Never" in2006) andswing (Roger Cicero – "Frauen regier'n die Welt" in2007 and Alex Swings Oscar Sings – "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" in2009). Germany had some successes throughout the decade,Lou - "Let's Get Happy" came in 11th place out of 26 in2003 andStefan Raab came 5th in2000, which was Germany's best placement during the 2000's. Germany tied for last in2008 for points, but was awarded 23rd of 25 places when the results were posted. In 2009, ARD held an internal selection for the first time since 1995 due to lack of interest and viewing figures of the German national finals.[4]Alex Christensen andOscar Loya were selected to represent Germany at the 2009 contest, where they performed on stage with burlesque artistDita Von Teese. However they only managed to receive 35 points, placing 20th of 25 competing countries.
In2010, ARD approached former entrant and songwriterStefan Raab and private networkProSieben to co-operate in finding a winning entry for the country. It has been said that Raab was approached due to his good record at the contest, finishing 5th in2000 as well as writing entries in1998 and2004, which finished 7th and 8th, respectively. Raab agreed and conducted a TV casting show calledUnser Star für Oslo which was broadcast on ARD and ProSieben. A winner arose inLena Meyer-Landrut with "Satellite", who went on to win the contest. Two further collaborations with ProSieben provided the second and third top ten result in a row respectively in2011 (Lena, who returned to defend her title with "Taken by a Stranger") and2012 (Roman Lob with "Standing Still").
The streak of top 10 finishes was broken in the2013 contest, whenCascada's song "Glorious" finished 21st with 18 points. The groupElaiza in2014,Ann Sophie in2015,Jamie-Lee in2016 andLevina in2017 finished in 18th, 27th (last), 26th (last) and 25th (second to last) place respectively. Ann Sophie became the country's third entry to finish withnul points, afterNora Nova in1964 andUlla Wiesner in1965, and the first since the introduction of the current scoring system in 1975.
Germany's luck changed in2018, whenMichael Schulte brought them back to the top 5 for the first time since 2010 with "You Let Me Walk Alone", finishing in fourth place. This is the first time since 2012 that more than one country from the "Big Five" has made the top ten (with Italy finishing fifth) and the second time (after 2002) that two "Big Five" countries have made the top five since the establishment of the rule.The year after, the duo Sisters with the song "Sister" was not able to replicate the same success, receiving no points from the televote and finishing in 25th place with 24 points.
Three further bottom five results were recorded by Germany at the start of the decade, that ofJendrik in2021 (also receiving no points from the televote),Malik Harris in2022 (receiving no points from the juries) andLord of the Lost in2023. This streak was broken byIsaak, whose entry "Always on the Run" placed 12th in2024 with 117 points, andAbor & Tynna, whose entry "Baller" placed 15th with 151 points in2025.
ARD consortium memberSüdwestrundfunk (SWR) is participating in the contest representing Germany for2026 onwards.[5] The responsibility within the consortium for the participation in the contest has changed hands between its different members over the years:[6]
In 1991, SFB worked in partnership with theEast German broadcasterDeutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF) to select the German entry for that year's contest. Between 2010 and 2012, private broadcasterProSieben worked in partnership with NDR.[6] In 2025,RTL Deutschland partnered with NDR.[8]
The process to select the German entry in the contest has changed over the years, with both national finals and internal selections (occasionally a combination of both formats) having been held.[6]
Since 1999, Germany, along withFrance,Spain and theUnited Kingdom, have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final regardless of their results in previous contests.[9] The participating broadcasters from these countries earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU, and subsequently became known as the "Big Four". In 2008, it was reported that the "Big Four" could lose their status and be forced to compete in the semi-finals;[10] however, this never materialised, and the rule remained in place.[11] WhenItaly returned to the contest in2011, it was given the same status, resulting in the countries becoming members of a "Big Five".[12][13]
Germany was the first Big Five country to win the contest after the rule was introduced, courtesy ofLena in2010. In terms of success, it is currently second behind Italy, which won in2021 withMåneskin, and finished second in2011 withRaphael Gualazzi and again in2019 withMahmood. However, taking into account Italy's absence from the contest for the first 11 years of the rule's existence, Germany remains the only country to have won out of the original "Big Four".
^abArbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
^abThe 1956 contest had secret voting and, apart from the winner, no results were released.
^In order to reduce the number of participating countries at the 1996 event aqualifying round was held among all countries except the hosts. Germany failed to progress from this round; entries which failed to progress have subsequently been discounted by the EBU and do not feature as part of the countries' list of appearances.
^Roxburgh, Gordon (2012).Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn:Telos Publishing. pp. 93–101.ISBN978-1-84583-065-6.
^Roxburgh, Gordon (2014).Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn:Telos Publishing. pp. 142–168.ISBN978-1-84583-093-9.
^Roxburgh, Gordon (2016).Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Three: The 1980s. Prestatyn:Telos Publishing.ISBN978-1-84583-118-9.
^Grassl, Andreas (October 2024). "Der erste Song Contest 1956".Euro-Voice (67).Munich, Germany: 100.OCLC1190215751.
^"München".Bild+Funk (in German). No. 26/1956. 24 June 1956. p. 46.OCLC643528928.
^"Bremen".Hör zu!, Norddeutsche Ausgabe (in German). No. 21/1956.Hamburg, West Germany. 20 May 1956. p. 47.OCLC724053084.
^"Rund ums Programm".Funk und Familie (in German). No. 25/1956.Hamburg, West Germany. 17 June 1956. pp. 4, 20 (supplement "Sendewoche vom 17. bis 23. Juni 1956").OCLC648143500.
^"Das Fernsehprogramm vom 9. März bis 15. März" [The TV schedule from 9 March to 15 March – Wednesday].Mannheimer Morgen (in German).Mannheim, West Germany. 8 March 1956. p. 20. Retrieved9 September 2024 – via Marchivum.
^"Deutsches Fernsehen" [German television].Neckar-Bote (in German).Heidelberg, West Germany. 7 March 1959. p. 38. Retrieved23 June 2024 – via Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.
^"Fernseh-Programm" [Television programmes].Weser Kurier (in German).Bremen, West Germany. 23 March 1963.
^"Fernseh-Programm" [Television programmes].Weser Kurier (in German). Bremen, West Germany. 21 March 1964.
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^"Fernsehprogramm – Samstag-Sonntag" [Television schedule – Saturday-Sunday].Honnefer Volkszeitung (in German).Bad Honnef, West Germany. 5 March 1966. p. 6. Retrieved23 June 2024 – via Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.
^L'Eurovision (in French).Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA). 12 March 1966. Retrieved20 November 2024.Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach: Guten abend meine damen und herren in Deutschland, in Österreich und in der Schweiz. [Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach: Good evening ladies and gentlemen in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.]
^"Der Fernseh-Spiegel – Samstag/Sonnabend, 29. März" [The television mirror – Saturday, 29 March].Staufener Wochenblatt (in German). Staufen im Breisgau, West Germany. 21–22 March 1969. p. 6. Retrieved8 September 2024 – via University Library Freiburg.
^"Der Fernseh-Spiegel – Samstag/Sonnabend, 21. März" [The television mirror – Saturday, 21 March].Staufener Wochenblatt (in German). Staufen im Breisgau, West Germany. 13–14 March 1970. p. 8. Retrieved20 September 2024 – via University Library Freiburg.
^"Der Fernseh-Spiegel – Samstag/Sonnabend, 25. März" [The television mirror – Saturday, 25 March].Staufener Wochenblatt (in German). Staufen im Breisgau, West Germany. 17–18 March 1972. p. 10. Retrieved3 January 2025 – via University Library Freiburg.
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For the most recent participation see
Birmingham
Fernando Paggi
Dolf van der Linden
Franck Pourcel
Norbert Daum
Pierre Cao
László Bencker
Michael Thatcher
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