BERLIN - German lawmakers on Sunday elected former East German human rights activist Joachim Gauck as the country's new president.

Gauck, 72, won an overwhelming majority, claiming 991 votes out of a total of 1,232, from a special assembly of German lawmakers and other dignitaries.

He will become the country's 11th president since the end of World War II, replacing Christian Wulff, who resigned earlier this year after it emerged that he had tried to stop revelations by Germany's most-read newspaper Bild in December 2011 of a personal loan on favorable terms in 2008. Wulff, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, was serving as state governor of the northern German state of Lower Saxony at the time.

Germany's president, who stands above party politics, holds a largely ceremonial role. The incumbent typically uses his moral authority to influence debates in the society and politics.