70th anniversary of the German Grundgesetz
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  70th anniversary of the German Grundgesetz
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Question: Opinion of the Grundgesetz? (Are you German?)
#1
Freedom constitution (yes)
 
#2
Horrible constitution (yes)
 
#3
Freedom constitution (no)
 
#4
Horrible constitution (no)
 
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Author Topic: 70th anniversary of the German Grundgesetz  (Read 392 times)
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Junior Chimp
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« on: May 24, 2019, 02:55:12 PM »

On May 24, 1949, the Basic Law of Germany became affective, thus finishing the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany. The previous day, the Basic Law was ratified by the Parliamentary Council; only the two communist members of the KDP rejected the bill. Two thirds of the 11 Bundesländer had to ratify the bill beforehand; Bavaria was the only state to reject the bill as it was apprehensive about too much exertion of influence by the federal government.

The Basic Law consists of 141 articles (including the deleted ones), including 19 fundamental rights, and has been changed (repealed/amended/inserted) 63 times so far.



Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

Preamble

Conscious of their responsibility before God and man,

Inspired by the determination to promote world peace as an equal partner in a united Europe, the German people, in the exercise of their constituent power, have adopted this Basic Law.

Germans in the Länder of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia have achieved the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination. This Basic Law thus applies to the entire German people.


I. Basic Rights


Article 1
[Human dignity – Human rights – Legally binding force of basic rights]

(1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.

(2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.

(3) The following basic rights shall bind the legislature, the executive and the judiciary as directly applicable law.


Article 2
[Personal freedoms]

(1) Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others or offend against the constitutional order or the moral law.

(2) Every person shall have the right to life and physical integrity. Freedom of the person shall be inviolable. These rights may be interfered with only pursuant to a law.


Article 3
[Equality before the law]

(1) All persons shall be equal before the law.

(2) Men and women shall have equal rights. The state shall promote the actual implementation of equal rights for women and men and take steps to eliminate disadvantages that now exist.

(3) No person shall be favoured or disfavoured because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith, or religious or political opinions. No person shall be disfavoured because of disability.


Article 4
[Freedom of faith and conscience]

(1) Freedom of faith and of conscience, and freedom to profess a religious or philosophical creed, shall be inviolable.

(2) The undisturbed practice of religion shall be guaranteed.

(3) No person shall be compelled against his conscience to render military service involving the use of arms. Details shall be regulated by a federal law.


Article 5
[Freedom of expression, arts and sciences]

(1) Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures, and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.

(2) These rights shall find their limits in the provisions of general laws, in provisions for the protection of young persons, and in the right to personal honour.

(3) Arts and sciences, research and teaching shall be free. The freedom of teaching shall not release any person from allegiance to the constitution.


II. The Federation and the Länder

Article 20
[Constitutional principles – Right of resistance]

(1) The Federal Republic of Germany is a democratic and social federal state.

(2) All state authority is derived from the people. It shall be exercised by the people through elections and other votes and through specific legislative, executive and judicial bodies.

(3) The legislature shall be bound by the constitutional order, the executive and the judiciary by law and justice.

(4) All Germans shall have the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order, if no other remedy is available.


Article 20a
[Protection of the natural foundations of life and animals]

Mindful also of its responsibility toward future generations, the state shall protect the natural foundations of life and animals by legislation and, in accordance with law and justice, by executive and judicial action, all within the framework of the constitutional order.


Article 21
[Political parties]

(1) Political parties shall participate in the formation of the political will of the people. They may be freely established. Their internal organisation must conform to democratic principles. They must publicly account for their assets and for the sources and use of their funds.

(2) Parties that, by reason of their aims or the behaviour of their adherents, seek to undermine or abolish the free democratic basic order or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany shall be unconstitutional. The Federal Constitutional Court shall rule on the question of unconstitutionality.

(3) Details shall be regulated by federal laws.


Article 22
[Federal capital – Federal flag]

(1) Berlin is the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federation shall be responsible for representing the nation as a whole in the capital. Details shall be regulated by federal law.

(2) The federal flag shall be black, red and gold.

Article 79
[Amendment of the Basic Law]

(1) This Basic Law may be amended only by a law expressly amending or supplementing its text. In the case of an international treaty regarding a peace settlement, the preparation of a peace settlement, or the phasing out of an occupation regime, or designed to promote the defence of the Federal Republic, it shall be sufficient, for the purpose of making clear that the provisions of this Basic Law do not preclude the conclusion and entry into force of the treaty, to add language to the Basic Law that merely makes this clarification.

(2) Any such law shall be carried by two thirds of the Members of the Bundestag and two thirds of the votes of the Bundesrat.

(3) Amendments to this Basic Law affecting the division of the Federation into Länder, their participation on principle in the legislative process, or the principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20 shall be inadmissible.
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Antonio the Sixth
Antonio V
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« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2019, 02:45:42 PM »

I like it a lot. While I'm sentimentally more attached to the Italian constitution and find its enumeration of rights and principles more beautiful, this one does the job just as well, and the basic institutional structure it sets up (parliamentary democracy with some checks against instability) is a model for all countries to aspire to.
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Former President tack50
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« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2019, 06:12:58 PM »

Massive Freedom Grundgesetz obviously

Fun fact: Despite the continous existence of the Bayernpartei for a long time, Spanish hardline unionists continually point out to Article 21 to claim that Germany somehow bans secessionist parties lol
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Former President tack50
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« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2019, 07:00:27 PM »

Massive Freedom Grundgesetz obviously

Fun fact: Despite the continous existence of the Bayernpartei for a long time, Spanish hardline unionists continually point out to Article 21 to claim that Germany somehow bans secessionist parties lol

Sigh. Your Statement is founded on a inherent misunderstanding about how the Grundgesetz works.  There are way to many tiny parties in Germany that there could be a trial before the constitutional court for every single one. There are a ton of parties that exist but are obviously against liberal democracy or the integrity of the federal republic, but that are not banned because they are completely irrelevant in practice. The MLPD (literal Stalinists) or the various neo-nazi parties (NPD, Dritter weg,DVU...) are an example for this. In the dissolution trial of the NPD, that had some relevance in the early 2000s but has lost it now, the Constitutional Court explicity said that the NPD was unconstitutional, but that it would not be dissolved because it has no relevance and is therefore not a threat to the constitution.

The Constitutional Court has repeatedly held that secessionist activities are unconstitutional. The reason why noone is going ahead and banning the Bayernpartei is because there is no serious secessionist movement in Germany. They are irrelevant. However if they would at some point become so powerful (like their counterparts in catalonia) that they could threaten the integrity of the federal republic, they would be banned.

As for the GG i like the parts about Human Rights and so on, but i would like it to be more secularist (like france) and less federalist, especially in terms of education. We currently have 16 different education systems with 16 different Abiture (a-levels) of different quality and difficulty. A unitary state would work better imo. but thats not exactly a popular opinion in Germany (and unconstitutional too).

Didn't the BP have regional representation until the late 60s or so? I would argue that's powerful enough to warrant a revision at the very least.
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