Eleanor Finch
Germany's constitution, known as the Basic Law, lays down fundamental rights, establishes the structure and administration of the Federal Republic of Germany, and sets out the legal framework of the three branches of government. The Basic Law was adopted in 1949, and while it only applied to West Germany at the time, it was proclaimed in the name of all German people. The Basic Law was amended in 1990 to state that German unification had been achieved, and it now applies to the entire Federal Republic of Germany. The Weimar Constitution, which governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era, was drafted by lawyer and liberal politician Hugo Preuss.
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What You'll Learn
The Weimar Constitution
The election was for a national assembly that would act as Germany's interim parliament and draft a new constitution. The assembly met in Weimar, rather than Berlin, due to the unsettled conditions in the capital. The delegates wanted to remind the victorious Allies of Weimar Classicism, which included the writers Goethe and Schiller, while they were deliberating the terms of the Versailles Treaty.
Under the Weimar Constitution, all adults over the age of 20 could vote. Instead of a monarch, there was a president elected every seven years. The president had supreme command over the military and appointed and removed the chancellor, who was the leader of the Reichstag and similar to the British Prime Minister. The chancellor determined the political guidelines of his government and was responsible to the Reichstag. The government (cabinet) formulated decisions by majority vote, and in the case of a tie, the president's vote was decisive.
Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution gave the president the authority to rule by decree in the state of an emergency, bypassing the elected Reichstag. While this article required the president's decrees to be counter-signed by the chancellor or "competent national minister", it did not define what constituted a "state of emergency". This article was repeatedly misused, eventually allowing Hitler to 'legally' take total control of Germany.
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The Enabling Act of 1933
Hitler and the Nazi Party used intimidation and persecution to ensure the passage of the Enabling Act. They prevented Communist and Social Democrat members of parliament from taking their seats by detaining them in Nazi-controlled camps. The Nazis were allied with other nationalist and conservative factions, and with their support, they secured a bare majority in the Reichstag.
The Enabling Act allowed Hitler's government to issue decrees and enact laws independently of the Reichstag and the presidency. It gave the government the right to draw up the budget, approve treaties, and enact any laws without input from the Reichstag or the Reich President von Hindenburg. This effectively transformed Hitler's government into a legal dictatorship and laid the groundwork for his totalitarian regime.
The Enabling Act became the cornerstone of Hitler's dictatorship, and it remained the constitutional basis for his regime until its collapse in 1945. The act was set to expire on April 1, 1937, if a new government replaced the Nazis, but this did not occur, and Hitler proceeded to carry out a revolution with the authority of the state. A series of decrees, including the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich in January 1934, abolished the Land (state) diets and transferred the sovereign powers of the Länder to the Reich.
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The GDR Constitution
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) Constitution of 1949 was heavily based on the Weimar Constitution and established the GDR as a liberal democratic republic. The People's Congress, comprising 2215 delegates, elected a council (Volksrat) to serve as an assembly representing the entire country. This assembly designated a committee to develop a constitution, with Future Minister-President Otto Grotewohl as its chairman. The German People's Congress met for a third time in 1949 and accepted the drafted constitution.
In 1968, the GDR adopted a new, fully Communist constitution based on Marxism-Leninism, political unitarism, and collective leadership. The 1968 constitution was amended in 1974 to delete references to the German nation and increase emphasis on solidarity and friendship with the Soviet Union. This document effectively codified the actual state of affairs that had prevailed in the GDR for two decades.
Article 1 of the 1968 constitution declared:
> "The German Democratic Republic is a socialist state of workers and farmers. It is the political organization of the workers in the cities and in the countryside under the leadership of the working class and their Marxist-Leninist party."
Significant changes introduced into the 1968 document included Article 6, which committed the state to adhere to the "principles of socialist internationalism" and to devote special attention to its "fraternal ties" with the Soviet Union. Article 9 based the national economy on the "socialist ownership of the means of production", and Article 20 granted freedom of conscience and belief.
With the political events of 1989, there were attempts to draft a new constitution for the GDR to reflect the democratic changes sweeping across the country. However, these efforts did not materialize due to the dissolution of East Germany and its unification with the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990.
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The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
The Basic Law was created by the Parliamentary Council, which included representatives of the federal states. The Parliamentary Council adopted the text on 8 May 1949 and confirmed the law on 23 May in Bonn. The Basic Law lays down fundamental rights, establishes the structure and administration of the Federal Republic of Germany, and sets out the legal framework of the three branches of government. It establishes the Federal Republic of Germany as a democratic, federal, and social constitutional state. The Basic Law guarantees basic rights, including the right to freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and equality before the law.
The Basic Law replaced the Weimar Constitution, which was the constitution of Germany from 1919 to 1933. The Weimar Constitution was drafted by lawyer and liberal politician Hugo Preuss and signed by Friedrich Ebert, the first president of Germany. It was divided into two main parts or chapters, which were further subdivided into sections. The Weimar Constitution provided for a popularly elected president with considerable power over foreign policy and the armed forces. However, it contained weaknesses that allowed Adolf Hitler to set up a Nazi dictatorship using the constitution as a cover of legitimacy.
When Germany reunified in 1990, the Basic Law was retained as the definitive constitution of reunified Germany. Minor revisions were enacted, but no complete revision took place. The Basic Law has been changed 62 times, especially alongside increasing ties between the Federal Republic and the West, European integration, and German reunification.
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The Unification Treaty
Following World War II, Germany was divided into two separate states: the Federal Republic of Germany in the west and the German Democratic Republic in the east. Despite initial hopes for reunification, rising tensions between the East and the West, fuelled by the Cold War dynamics, led to the construction of the Berlin Wall and a deepening divide.
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, adopted in 1949, served as an interim constitution for West Germany and explicitly acknowledged the aspiration for a future united German state. It provided two potential routes for unification: through the accession of other German parts under Article 23, or via the exercise of constituent power by elected representatives under Article 146.
In the early 1970s, efforts to improve relations between the two German states resulted in the Basic Treaty, which recognised the GDR as one of two German states within a single German nation. This treaty laid the groundwork for further negotiations and set the stage for the Unification Treaty.
On August 23, 1990, the GDR's Volkskammer declared its intention to accede to the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the Basic Law, with an effective date of October 3, 1990. This declaration was conditional on amendments to the Basic Law, including those agreed upon in the Unification Treaty. These amendments addressed a range of constitutional changes, such as removing or amending clauses related to the Federal Constitutional Court's claim of a unified German state.
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Frequently asked questions
The constitution of the Weimar Republic, which governed Germany during the Weimar Republic era, was drafted by lawyer and liberal politician Hugo Preuss.
The Weimar Constitution was divided into two main parts or chapters, which were further divided into 12 sections. There were 181 articles in the constitution, which included civic rights such as freedom of speech and habeas corpus.
The Weimar Constitution was replaced by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany until 1990, then reunited Germany) and the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
