Joachim Gauck, PhD, born in Rostock in 1940, was from 1990 to 2000 Federal Commissioner in charge of the records of the former East German State Security Service (Stasi). Since 2003, he has been chairman of the organization "Against Forgetting – For Democracy". After Christian Wulff resigned as president of Germany in February of 2012, Joachim Gauck was nominated by the majority of the country's political parties as their joint candidate for president.