Germany's parliamentary assembly has elected Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, as the country's president.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been elected Germany's next president. Photo: CNN

Steinmeier, Germany's former foreign minister, was elected Sunday in Berlin with 931 of the 1,260 votes. The special election assembly was made up of the 630 lawmakers in parliament's lower house and an equal number of representatives from Germany's 16 states.

"This country for many in the world has become an anchor of hope," Steinmeier said after his election. "We give others courage, not because everything is good, but because we have shown that it can be better," he said.

The German president has little executive power but is considered an important moral authority.

Steinmeier, had the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel's "grand coalition" of center-right and center-left parties.

The presidential vote was likely one of the last moments of coalition unity ahead of a parliamentary election in September in which Merkel is seeking a fourth term. Both sides hope to end the "grand coalition."/.

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