German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier | John Macdougall AFP via Getty Images The curse of the German presidency A political ripple in Berlin creates waves in Brussels.

BERLIN — It’s the appendix of Germany’s political system, unspectacular, unnecessary and mostly unnoticed — until there’s a problem.

Germany’s presidency, a job that mainly involves ribbon cuttings and giving eulogies, has been an unlikely source of intrigue, scandal and even superstition during Angela Merkel’s reign.

Though Germany has only had 11 presidents since the war, three have served during Merkel’s 11-year chancellorship and she’s about to usher in her fourth. For a position that is supposed to represent the stability and continuity of the state, the recent carousel has convinced some that the job is cursed.

A few years ago, then-incumbent Horst Köhler became so depressed that he resigned. His replacement lasted just 18 months, sunk by accusations of graft, later disproved.

Joachim Gauck, the current president, succeeded in restoring the office’s dignity, but recently declined to serve a second term. His refusal triggered a cascade that, after disrupting Berlin’s politics, now threatens the balance of power between the EU institutions.

If the current speculation in Brussels and Berlin proves correct, European Parliament President Martin Schulz is poised to become Germany’s foreign minister, replacing Frank-Walter Steinmeier who was tapped this week to become Germany’s president.

While the shift would resolve the long-running question over Schulz’s future, it could create a new dilemma over the leadership of the European Council. Under an informal agreement between the European People’s Party and the Party of European Socialists, to which Schulz belongs, the EPP is entitled to select Schulz’s replacement. But that would leave all three European power centers — the Commission, the Council and the Parliament — in conservative hands. Though such a monopoly is not unprecedented, it would not reflect the current balance of power in Europe and the Socialists, in particular the Italians, have vowed to resist it.

With Council President Donald Tusk’s term set to expire next year, the Socialists could demand that he be replaced by one of theirs. While Tusk’s future was already clouded by opposition to him in his native Poland from political rivals who now rule in Warsaw, Berlin and other conservative-led governments regard the former Polish premier as an important ally in Brussels and are loath to let him go. If he did have to go, they would want his replacement to be another conservative.

Breaking that impasse will be difficult. However it is resolved, the solution will require the very kind of backroom deal that has fed criticism of Europe as untransparent and undemocratic.

In other words, the selection of the next German president, itself the product of a horse trade between the country’s big parties, could trigger further deals over the Parliament and the Council.

Without a single European citizen casting a vote, two of the EU’s three institutional pillars could have new leadership. All to fill a job in Berlin with little power or purpose.

For Merkel, Gauck’s decision has already taken a heavy political toll. After a months-long search, no one on her short-list would agree. Grudgingly, she agreed to accept Steinmeier, the Social Democrats’ candidate.

The German president is elected by a special assembly of national and regional representatives in February. Merkel’s conservatives don’t have a majority in the body and could not push through their own candidate without support from another party. Given that all of Germany’s other major parties are on the left side of the political spectrum, a conservative candidate would have been a tough sell. None of the non-partisan candidates Merkel approached would agree.

Rather than risk a fight she was almost sure to lose just months ahead of Germany’s general election next fall, Merkel decided to fold.

To be fair, Merkel isn’t solely to blame for the presidential quagmire. If Germany elected its president by popular vote as many other countries do, there wouldn’t be an issue. But then, Germany’s record with popularly elected presidents is also fraught.

Originally installed as an ersatz-Kaiser after World War I, the president had sweeping powers. In 1933, with Germany reeling under economic depression and the chaos of the Weimar Republic, President Paul von Hindenburg installed a former army corporal as chancellor, Adolf Hitler.