Wars, politics & history

Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

23 May 1949

The Basic Law, or Grundgesetz, is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was drafted in 1948 and 1949 by the Parliamentary Council in Bonn and approved by the Western Allies and the state parliaments in the three western zones of occupation. It was intended to be provisional until Germany was reunited, and for this reason it was called a Basic Law rather than a constitution. It begins with a guarantee of human dignity and basic rights, and it set up a federal system with a strong constitutional court, as a response to the failures of the Weimar Republic. After reunification in 1990, it was kept as the constitution of the whole country.

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