Preamble to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

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Preamble to the Basic Law as amended by the Unification Treaty (1990)

The preamble of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is the preamble of the German Basic Law (GG). Only in it does the Basic Law name the individual federal states . The wording is:

Conscious of his responsibility before God and man,
Inspired by the will to serve the peace of the world as an equal member in a united Europe, the German people, by virtue of their constituent powers, gave themselves this Basic Law.
The Germans in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia have in free self-determination completes the unity and freedom of Germany. This Basic Law applies to the entire German people.

This version, modified by the Unification Treaty ( Art. 3 EV), replaced the original preamble of the Basic Law of 23 May 1949 (see section " Historical wording "), which only applies to . Art. 4 EV with the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990 “A transitional period” until the unification of Germany was completed.

Position on the Basic Law

It is controversial whether the preamble of the Basic Law is an integral part of it, which is supported by the wording and the systematic position. The only thing that can be inferred from the materials of the Parliamentary Council is that it was unanimously assumed that the preamble should make it clear what the purpose of the Basic Law was, confer its political and legal qualifications on it and contain “legally significant findings, assessments, custody and claims at the same time”.

In the early days of the Federal Republic of Germany, the overwhelming doctrine of the preamble of the Basic Law merely attached importance as an aid to interpretation, the Federal Constitutional Court stated in its KPD judgment that the reunification requirement in the preamble should also apply as a direct legal norm . Since then, a distinction has been made correctly, albeit largely unspecifically, according to the type of statements made in the preamble, particularly as they result from their linguistic structures; legally binding national goals , statements of a purely documentary character and mixed forms stand side by side. A purely objective-legal character is consistently assumed.

Relation to God

The reference to God in the constitution was similar to Article 140 of the Basic Law , always incompatible with the separation of church and state criticized. In March 1993, the Protestant theologian Wolfgang Ullmann unsuccessfully applied to the Joint Constitutional Commission "to renounce God in the constitution - because God doesn't belong there." It was also questioned whether, in view of a belief in God of only 47% in Germany (according to Eurostat ) there is a minimum consensus among the people of the state for the awareness of a "responsibility before God" invoked by the preamble.

Historically, the reference to God in the preamble of the Basic Law is a novelty. Neither the Paulskirche constitution of 1849 nor the Weimar constitution of 1919 contained a reference to God in the preamble or text. The acceptance of the "responsibility of the people before God" - and thus before a further authority than that of their own people alone - is usually explained by the turmoil that occurred shortly before in the " Third Reich " ( time of National Socialism ). In today's constitutional reality, however, this so-called responsibility clause is hardly assigned any direct legal relevance. Those voices in academia who pleaded for a minimum of legal relevance have remained in the minority.

The reference to God places the Basic Law in the tradition established by the Declaration of Independence of the United States (1776), according to which the general human and democratic civil rights theonomes , i.e. H. Ideas relating to God's law are. These rights were derived from the biblical belief in creation : “All people are created equal”, “The Creator has given them certain inalienable rights, which include life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.” This was followed by this declaration of independence , which was followed a few years later the United States Constitution and the US Bill of Rights , the philosopher John Locke , who made equality of men, including gender equality, from Genesis (1.26 ff. EU ), the source text of the theological Imago-Dei -Teaching , derived. For Locke, the principle of equality obtained in this way resulted in, among other things, both the individual's freedom and participation rights and the principle that every government requires the consent of the governed. The French Revolution at the end of the 18th century freed human and civil rights from their theological roots and replaced them with the utilitarian doctrine of “common benefit” ( utilité commune ). This made the law manipulable. The at each power group of revolutionaries contained certain what the "common benefit" was and let her political opponents to death. Tens of thousands of men and women lost their lives in this way. In addition, the Vendée uprising claimed over 300,000 deaths. Mainly for these reasons criticized z. B. Jacob Grimm in the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848 the French position and called for a return to the religious foundations of brotherhood and freedom of all people ( Imperial Constitution of March 28, 1849 ).

The German Basic Law also follows the American model in other central points: democratic , republican form of government , federalism , catalog of basic rights , separation of powers , bicameral parliament (or based on it) and the Federal Constitutional Court.

Europe reference

The preamble of the Basic Law speaks of the fact that the "German people" are "inspired" by the will to "serve the peace of the world as an equal member in a united Europe". Based on this, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in its Lisbon ruling in 2009 that the German constitution was “aimed at European integration ” and wanted “an organized coexistence in Europe”.

spelling

Subject to several petitions Federal Government and the German Bundestag have for years employed, the question was whether the joint-s in constitutional s legislative power is correct. Due to conflicting expert opinions and the fact that the use of the fugue is not clearly regulated in German spelling , but often follows the regionally different feeling for language, it was decided not to change the Basic Law for this alone. The spelling with fugue-s published in the Federal Law Gazette is therefore acceptable, even if it should be perceived as incorrect by some. In any case, the spelling of constituent power or even constitution-giving power has so far not caught on.

Historical wording

Preamble to the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany from the first edition of the Federal Law Gazette Part I of May 23, 1949

The old preamble of May 23, 1949 was worded as follows:

Conscious of his responsibility before God and man,
Inspired by the will to preserve its national and state unity and to serve the peace of the world as an equal member in a united Europe, the German people has
in the states of Baden, Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern,
to give state life a new order for a transitional period,
passed this Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany by virtue of its constituent power.
It also acted for those Germans who were denied participation.
The entire German people are called upon to complete the unity and freedom of Germany through free self-determination.

In this original preamble from 1949, the states of Baden , Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern , which merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952 , are listed. In addition, there is no Saarland , which after a 1955 referendum on the Saar Statute did not join the Federal Republic until January 1, 1957. Not mentioned is (West) Berlin , which was only allowed to participate in the Parliamentary Council with members without voting rights. In contrast, Article 23 also named Greater Berlin in its list of the countries in whose territory the Basic Law initially applies ( see also the Berlin question ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Preamble to the Basic Law , current version
  2. ↑ BVerfG, judgment of August 17, 1956, Az. 1 BvB 2/51, BVerfGE 5, 85 - KPD ban
  3. ↑ Der Spiegel 11/1993 of March 15, 1993 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Eurostat poll on the social and religious beliefs of Europeans. (PDF; 1.7 MB) Retrieved April 3, 2009 .
  5. ↑ Erwin Fischer: No to God in the Basic Law! The constitutional revision (from: MIZ 2/93), International Association of Non-Denominational and Atheists e. V. , accessed on March 26, 2018.
  6. ↑ Axel Hopfauf, in: Schmidt-Bleibtreu / Hofmann / Hopfauf , Commentary on the Basic Law, 12th edition, p. 83.
  7. ↑ Ennuschat, NJW 1998, p. 955 and Heitmann, in: Festschrift für Walter Remmers, 1995, p. 129.
  8. ↑ Wilhelm Wertbruch: Menschenrechte , in: The religion in history and present , 3rd edition, Volume IV, Sp. 869.
  9. ↑ Jeremy Waldron, God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought . Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-521-89057-1 , pp. 22 ff., 83 ff.
  10. ^ Paul R. Hanson: Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md. 2004; Jacques Hussenet (ed.): “Détruisez la Vendée!” Regards croisés sur les victimes et destructions de la guerre de Vendée . Center Vendéen de Recherches Historiques, La Roche-sur-Yon 2007, p. 148.
  11. ↑ Wilhelm Wertbruch: Menschenrechte , in: The religion in history and present , 3rd edition, Volume IV, Sp. 870.
  12. ↑ BVerfG, judgment of June 30, 2009, Az. 2 BvE 2/08, paragraph no. 220, 222 .
  13. ↑ Fluctuating Fugen-s . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 2004 ( online - 4 October 2004 ).
  14. ↑ Fugen-s remains! , Blog of the opposing petitioner from December 18, 2004.
  15. ^ Law on the integration of the Saarland of December 23, 1956