On 11 October in Schloss Bellevue, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jena-based historian Professor Norbert Frei presented the findings of a research project on the handling of the National Socialist past by the Federal Presidents and the Office of the Federal President.

Over the course of the three year research project, historian Frei and his team had investigated the backgrounds and presidencies of the six Federal Presidents from 1949 to 1994. To this end, they examined speeches and state visits by the Federal Presidents, their treatment of National Socialist perpetrators and the commemoration of victims of Nazi crimes, as well as the appointments and decorations bestowed by the Federal Presidents. Another part of the study focused on the staff of the Office of the Federal President, which was established in 1949, and their professional careers between 1933 and 1945.

Norbert Frei published the complete findings of the survey in the C.H. Beck publishing house (Munich) on 12 October, initially in German. The Office of the Federal President simultaneously published a brochure containing the central findings of the study, also in English, which can be downloaded or ordered here.

In late 2019, President Steinmeier had issued a call for tenders for the research project on "The Office of the Federal President and its handling of the National Socialist past". Following a two stage selection procedure, a research team headed by Professor Frei from Friedrich Schiller University of Jena began work in summer 2020. An academic advisory council supported the Office of the Federal President with the project from the outset.

The research project reflects the commitment undertaken by the Federal President and the Office of the Federal President "to look our history and the way we have handled it squarely in the eye, and not to shield the highest public office and its staff from that self-criticism", as President Steinmeier emphasised in his speech at the first presentation of the study on 13 September 2021. Following the conclusion of the project, the biographical details of the Federal Presidents on these pages will be reviewed.