<p>Anti-communist pastor Joachim Gauck was elected German president by an overwhelming majority on Sunday, marking the first time a candidate from the former communist east will be head of state.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Gauck, 72, claimed 991 votes out of 1,232 from a special assembly of MPs and other dignitaries, parliamentary speaker Norbert Lammert said, against prominent Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld, 73, who was nominated as a protest candidate by the far-left party Die Linke.<br /><br />“What a beautiful Sunday,” Gauck said to enthusiastic applause from the chamber of the glass-domed Reichstag parliament building in central Berlin after the vote. It was the third presidential election in three years for Germany after the abrupt resignations of Gauck’s two predecessors.<br /><br />Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her backing to the plain-spoken Lutheran pastor in February after then president Christian Wulff stepped down.</p>
<p>Anti-communist pastor Joachim Gauck was elected German president by an overwhelming majority on Sunday, marking the first time a candidate from the former communist east will be head of state.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Gauck, 72, claimed 991 votes out of 1,232 from a special assembly of MPs and other dignitaries, parliamentary speaker Norbert Lammert said, against prominent Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld, 73, who was nominated as a protest candidate by the far-left party Die Linke.<br /><br />“What a beautiful Sunday,” Gauck said to enthusiastic applause from the chamber of the glass-domed Reichstag parliament building in central Berlin after the vote. It was the third presidential election in three years for Germany after the abrupt resignations of Gauck’s two predecessors.<br /><br />Chancellor Angela Merkel gave her backing to the plain-spoken Lutheran pastor in February after then president Christian Wulff stepped down.</p>