As an Evangelical Lutheran pastor and church official, he was one of the best-known internal critics of the German Democratic Republic and a leading member of the New Forum, which was largely responsible for the protests in the GDR. He was a member of the East Berlin Volkskammer for the newly created Bündnis 90 during the fall of communism.

After reunification, he initially headed the Stasi Records Office and then worked as a journalist. As chairman of the association "Gegen Vergessen - Für Demokratie" (Against Forgetting - For Democracy), he was committed to investigating the crimes of the GDR's unjust regime.

He vacated this post in March 2012 when he was elected by the Federal Assembly on a non-partisan basis as the eleventh President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

During his inaugural visit to Hesse, he visited Wiesbaden on March 15, 2013. Mayor Müller congratulated him on his election to the highest German office and wished him much strength and success. Gauck expressed his thanks for the warm welcome and then, like his predecessors, signed the city's Golden Book.