Reunification requirement

The reunification requirement was part of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990. This constitutional mandate was found in the preamble of the Basic Law . The organs of the Federal Republic were obliged to work towards the reunification of Germany ; the mandate made the goal of uniting Germany under the umbrella of one state constitutionally binding. The Basic Law also assumed that after 1949 there was a Germany as a whole that was larger than the then Federal Republic ( West Germany ).

The Brandt-Scheel government tried in 1969, relations with the other German state (the GDR ) to improve. The CDU / CSU opposition feared that this would undermine the reunification requirement. The Federal Constitutional Court continued to oblige the federal government to meet the constitutional goal, but left it up to the government as to how it wanted to achieve the goal.

With the reunification in 1990, the requirement became obsolete. The actual reunification requirement was removed from the Basic Law through the Unification Treaty. Instead, the Basic Law states that Germany's unity has been achieved.

The constitutional side of the right to self-determination under international law

The preamble ended with the sentence:

"The entire German people are called upon to complete the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination ."

According to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court , this resulted in a constitutional imperative, binding on all state organs , to strive to regain the unity of Germany and to work towards the realization of this goal.

The attempt of the then opposition , however, the ratification of the social-liberal coalition under Chancellor Willy Brandt negotiated basic treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic by the Federal Constitutional Court to prohibit, failed because the Constitutional Court refer to the independence of the policy on the question of which way the national goal of reunification is to be implemented, stressed. The border question was also open until the unification of Germany.

Reunification in the constitution of the GDR

The constitution of the German Democratic Republic also had provisions in the constitutions of 1949 and 1968 that aimed at reunification. Article 1 of the 1949 Constitution states:

“(1) Germany is an indivisible democratic republic; it builds on the German Länder.
[...]
(4) There is only one German nationality . "

In the constitution of 1968, Article 1 only declares that the GDR is “a socialist state of the German nation”. In Article 8, however, the reunification of Germany is aimed at, albeit explicitly on the basis of socialism :

“(2) The establishment and maintenance of normal relationships and cooperation between the two German states on the basis of equality are national concerns of the German Democratic Republic. The German Democratic Republic and its citizens also strive to overcome the division of Germany imposed by imperialism on the German nation , the gradual rapprochement of the two German states until their unification on the basis of democracy and socialism. "

In the last constitution of the GDR from 1974, any mention of the German nation was deleted. There it says in Article 1:

"The German Democratic Republic is a socialist state of workers and peasants."

The aim of reunification was completely deleted from Article 8.

After German reunification in 1990

With the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany, the reunification requirement of the Basic Law, which aimed in particular at the "preservation of the national unity of the German people", was fulfilled; it has become obsolete. The preamble to the Basic Law and two other articles have therefore been amended or repealed. The preamble now says:

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 leads to the following constitutional view:

“By changing the preamble and Art. 146 GG old version as well as repealing Art. 23 GG old version , the reunification goal has been achieved overall. There are no further areas that could join either under the current constitutional law of the Federal Republic of Germany or under international law [...]. There is no longer a legal basis for the inclusion of other areas of the German Reich within the borders of December 31, 1937 , to which Art. 23 sentence 2 GG old version [...] was based. The Federal Republic of Germany has become identical to the continuing German Reich in the area defined by its constitution and international law . The previous partial identity […] has become a full subject identity . The Federal Republic thus entered into the legal and obligations of the German Reich in full. "

Further reunification commandments

A reunification requirement existed

in the constitution of the canton of Basel-Stadt .

On the other hand, there is a constitutional requirement for state independence

in the canton of Basel-Country ,
by virtue of the State Treaty of 1955 in the Republic of Austria .

Individual evidence

↑ On the content of the reunification requirement , Georg Ress , foundations and development of intra-German relations , in: Josef Isensee / Paul Kirchhof (ed.): Handbuch des Staatsrechts der Bundes Republik Deutschland , Vol. I, 2nd edition, Heidelberg 1995, § 11 Rn . 55 ff.

↑ See Wilhelm G. Grewe , Germany Treaty , in: Werner Weidenfeld / Karl-Rudolf Korte (eds.), Handbook on German Unity 1949–1989–1999 , new edition 1999, p. 297 : “In the Germany Treaty , reunification always meant only the merger of the Federal Republic, GDR and Berlin . The German Bundestag also assumed this in the 'Law on the Principles for the Free Election of a Constituent German National Assembly' which it passed on February 2, 1952. [...] Until [the final regulation with regard to Germany ] the borders of 1937 could serve as a starting date under negotiation law, but not as a binding target date "; the Federal Republic was not obliged to “see it as a binding negotiation target.” Cf. also Georg Ress, Basic Law , in: ibid., p. 408 : “Turning away from the [...] concept of Germany on which the reunification requirement of the old preamble [...] is based (namely Germany within the limits of December 31, 1937) ”.

^ Alfred Katz: Staatsrecht. Basic Course in Public Law , 18th edition, Heidelberg 2010, Rn. 129 .

↑ Klaus Stern , in: The constitutional law of the Federal Republic of Germany - Volume V , CH Beck, Munich 2000, p. 1964 f. (§ 135, 3rd section); this view is undisputed in jurisprudence (cf. the references in Stern, ibid.).

[1] On the content of the reunification requirement , Georg Ress , foundations and development of intra-German relations , in: Josef Isensee / Paul Kirchhof (ed.): Handbuch des Staatsrechts der Bundes Republik Deutschland , Vol. I, 2nd edition, Heidelberg 1995, § 11 Rn . 55 ff.

[2] See Wilhelm G. Grewe , Germany Treaty , in: Werner Weidenfeld / Karl-Rudolf Korte (eds.), Handbook on German Unity 1949–1989–1999 , new edition 1999, p. 297 : “In the Germany Treaty , reunification always meant only the merger of the Federal Republic, GDR and Berlin . The German Bundestag also assumed this in the 'Law on the Principles for the Free Election of a Constituent German National Assembly' which it passed on February 2, 1952. [...] Until [the final regulation with regard to Germany ] the borders of 1937 could serve as a starting date under negotiation law, but not as a binding target date "; the Federal Republic was not obliged to “see it as a binding negotiation target.” Cf. also Georg Ress, Basic Law , in: ibid., p. 408 : “Turning away from the [...] concept of Germany on which the reunification requirement of the old preamble [...] is based (namely Germany within the limits of December 31, 1937) ”.

[3] Alfred Katz: Staatsrecht. Basic Course in Public Law , 18th edition, Heidelberg 2010, Rn. 129 .

[4] Klaus Stern , in: The constitutional law of the Federal Republic of Germany - Volume V , CH Beck, Munich 2000, p. 1964 f. (§ 135, 3rd section); this view is undisputed in jurisprudence (cf. the references in Stern, ibid.).