The Federal Republic of Germany has participated in the contest since its inception in . Before
German 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 the
Intervision Song Contest. With one win () and four second-place results (, , , and ), Germany was the second most successful country in the contest in the 1980s, behind Ireland, who had two wins in the decade.
1996 absence ARD had selected an artist and song to represent them at the , to be held in
Oslo, 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.
2000s In the 2000s, Germany has been notable for their adoption of musical styles which are not typical of Eurovision, such as
country and western (
Texas Lightning – "
No No Never" in ) and
swing (
Roger Cicero – "" in and Alex Swings Oscar Sings – "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" in ). Germany had some successes throughout the decade,
Lou - "Let's Get Happy" came in 11th place out of 26 in and
Stefan Raab came 5th in
2000, which was Germany's best placement during the 2000s. Germany tied for last in 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.
Alex Christensen and
Oscar Loya were selected to represent Germany at the 2009 contest, where they performed on stage with burlesque artist
Dita Von Teese. However they only managed to receive 35 points, placing 20th of 25 competing countries.
2010s In , ARD approached former entrant and songwriter
Stefan Raab and private network
ProSieben 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 in as well as writing entries in and , which finished 7th and 8th, respectively. Raab agreed and conducted a TV casting show called which was broadcast on ARD and ProSieben. A winner arose in
Lena 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 in (Lena, who returned to defend her title with "
Taken by a Stranger") and (
Roman Lob with "Standing Still"). The streak of top 10 finishes was broken in the contest, when
Cascada's song "
Glorious" finished 21st with 18 points. The group
Elaiza in ,
Ann Sophie in ,
Jamie-Lee in and
Levina in finished in 18th, 27th (last), 26th (last) and 25th (second to last) place respectively. Ann Sophie became the country's third entry to finish with
nul points, after
Nora Nova in and
Ulla Wiesner in , and the first since the introduction of the current scoring system in 1975. Germany's luck changed in , when
Michael 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 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.
2020s Three further bottom five results were recorded by Germany at the start of the decade, that of
Jendrik in (also receiving no points from the televote),
Malik Harris in (receiving no points from the juries) and
Lord of the Lost in . This streak was broken by
Isaak, whose entry "
Always on the Run" placed 12th in with 117 points, and
Abor & Tynna, whose entry "
Baller" placed 15th with 151 points in . ==Organisation==