Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany
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The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany is the name of Germany's constitution. It was written in 1949 when Germany was split into the countries of East Germany and West Germany. Many parts of the constitution are very different from the constitution of the Weimar Republic.
The writers decided not to call it the constitution because they hoped it would only be a temporary law for West Germany and that the two Germanys would soon be made into one.
It was more than 40 years before East Germany and West Germany became one country again, but the old name of Basic Law has been kept.
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[change] Protecting the Constitution
The Bundesverfassungsgericht protects the constitution by banning laws which break the constitution. There are some "eternal clauses" in the constitution which the court will protect even by banning constitutional amendments (laws to change them). Article 1, about human life, and article 20's basic principles are protected from change. This is to make sure nothing the like Nazi period happens again. The Nazis were able to pass an act which allowed Hitler to rule by decree.
[change] The Five Constitutional Bodies
Germany is a federal parliamentary democracy. To show this there are five "constitutional institutions".
[change] Presidency
The (German: Bundespräsident) (federal president) is the head of state. It is largely ceremonial position with only a small role in daily politics. The president does not have the massive power of the president of the Weimar Republic: he is the formal head of state, and signs laws before they can enter into force and appoints federal officials, he cannot decide when to dissolve the Bundestag or name a new chancellor without a prior majority vote in the parliament.
[change] Executive branch
The Chancellor, elected by the Bundestag, is head of the executive branch. He or she heads the federal Cabinet.
[change] Judicial branch: Federal Constitutional Court
The guardian of the Basic Law is the German Federal Constitutional Court. Its decisions have the status of ordinary law. It can declare statutes as null and void if they are in violation of the Basic Law.
[change] Legislative branch
The legislative branch has two of the constitutional bodies.
[change] Bundesrat
Germany's upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, represents the Länder. It also shows that Germany is a federal state. Federalism is one of the "eternal clauses" of the constitution, that can never be changed..
[change] Bundestag
[change] Other stipulations
[change] The military
The Weimar Constitution had the Reichswehr outside of the control of the parliament or the public. The army directly reported to the president who himself was not dependent on the parliament. Under the Basic Law, the Bundeswehr is responsible to parliament, because during times of peace the Bundeswehr reports to the minister of defence, during time of war to the chancellor. The chancellor is directly responsible to the parliament, the minister is indirectly responsible to the parliament because it can remove the government by electing a new chancellor.
The Basic Law also created a Wehrbeauftragter, reporting to parliament not to the government. The Wehrbeauftragter is a soldiers' ombudsman who can be petitioned directly by soldiers, bypassing the chain of command. Disciplinary measures against soldiers petitioning the Wehrbeauftragter are prohibited.
Aa number of Constitutional Court cases in the 1990s have ruled that the army cannot be used by the government outside of NATO territory without a specific resolution of parliament, which describes the details of the mission and limits its term.
[change] Referendums and plebiscites
The Basic Law only allows referendums on a single issue: changing borders of the Länder. Baden-Württemberg was founded following a 1952 referendum that approved the fusion of three separate states. In a 1996 referendum the inhabitants of Berlin and Brandenburg rejected a proposed merger of the two states.
[change] Development of the Basic Law since 1949
Important changes to the Basic Law were the re-introduction of conscription and the establishment of the Bundeswehr in 1956.
During reunification East Germany and West Germany decided not to write a new constitution, but to keep the old one, which had worked so well in West Germany. The constitution was amended to allow East Germany to join, and then changed again to strengthen the claim that Germany wanted no more territory. This was a promise made in the Final Settlement.[1][2]
[change] Footnotes
- ↑ Johnson, Edward Elwyn. International law aspects of the German refunification alternative answers to the German question. Page 11 footnote 18, and Page 26.
- ↑ periodic reports of States parties due in 1993 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), 22 February 1996. Introduction: paragraph 6.
[change] See also
[change] Former Constitutions
- Constitution of the German Empire (1871-1919)
- Weimar Constitution (1919-1933)
- Constitution of the German Democratic Republic (German Democratic Republic; GDR, 1949-1990)
[change] Others
- Bremen clause
- Bundesrechnungshof
- German Emergency Acts
- History of Germany
- Politics of Germany
[change] Other websites
- Full text:
- Official English translation (status: December 2000)
- Original text: HTML, PDF, non-official table of contents (status: August 2006)
- Former Constitutions:
- Constitution of the German Empire (1871-1919). In English. Full text from Wikisource.
- Constitution of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933). In English, as HTML file.
- Excerpts from the 1968 Constitution of the GDR. In English, as HTML file.
- Other links:
- Introduction to the basic and the constitutional law (on JurisPedia).
