Germany Federal state
| GERMANY | / HISTORY |
History and trends
Germany is a parliamentary republic. Its constitution was adopted on 8 May 1949, and overhauled in 1990.
Germany is by far Europe’s biggest economic power and is also its second most populous country after Russia.
There are historical reasons for this supremacy, notably due to the country’s early and massive commercial and industrial growth. Another important consideration is the fact that Germany only unified in the second half of the 19th century. Despite Berlin’s incontestable might, the country has other major cities (Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Bremen, Hanover, Leipzig and Dresden), all of which play an important role in the country’s economic, social and cultural life. More than 85% of Germans live in cities.
Modern-day Germany was formed through the Unification Treaty of 31 August 1990, which reunited the German Democratic Republic (GDR) with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The treaty marked the completion of German reunification and made the West German constitution (Basic Law) of 1949 the constitution of a unified Germany.
The “Two Plus Four Agreement”, signed in Moscow on 12 September 1990 by the two German states and the Allies of World War II (United States, United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union) governed the external aspects of reunification. The agreement restored full sovereignty to Germany and defined its territorial boundaries and military position. The new German state encompassed the former territories of the FRG, the GDR and Berlin, and the Oder-Neisse line was definitively recognised as its border with Poland. The first German federal election, in December 1990, was the final act of reunification. The coalition of the CDU/CSU and the FDP, led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, was returned to power.
Regional level :
The number of regions stems primarily from local government reforms between 1967 and 1974. This amalgamation process has continued since then. Over the past 40 years, the number of districts and municipalities has varied significantly. Between 1965 and 1975, there was a two-thirds cut in the number of municipalities, while the number of districts fell by almost half. Then, in 1990, reunification saw the number of municipalities almost double. The figures have fallen steadily since then.
Municipalities (Gemeinde) and districts (Landkreise or Kreise) are enshrined in the federal constitution. But local self-government rules are largely governed by the state (Länder) constitutions.
Administrative districts (Bezirke) are not found throughout the country. In fact, there are only 29 administrative districts in the whole of Germany, and only in some states. There is an ongoing debate as to whether they serve any purpose, and whether they should be abolished (following the example set by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate several years ago).
Germany’s states (Länder), while subnational entities, are not local governments. They are federated states that have their own constitution are share sovereignty with the federal state (according to article 30 of the federal constitution). Their remit extends beyond simple legislative power.
The states have the power to conclude treaties with foreign states, and are involved in drafting and voting on laws in the Federal Council (Bundesrat), their representative body. They have exclusive powers in a range of areas. The states have a relatively centralist relationship with local governments. In 2003, the political establishment once again began looking at the question of whether to reduce the number of states through mergers.
A joint committee of the two chambers was set up in October 2003 to look again at the distribution of powers between the federal government and the states. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, only 10% of laws required assent from the Federal Council. Today, that figure stands at around 60%. In the late 1960s, the federal government extended the range of activities co-financed by the federation and the states. Some observers argued that this led to widespread confusion. In addition, on the financial front (see below), the incorporation of the former East German states undermined the equalisation system.
Intermediary level :
Districts are both local governments with legal personality and state administrative districts. In many big cities, municipalities and districts exist side-by-side. The district council (Kreistag) is elected by direct universal suffrage for a variable term. Most district councils are made up of municipal mayors, although there is no hard-and-fast rule.
It had long been tradition for the president of the district council, who chaired the council but had no voting rights, to be elected by the assembly following approval by the state’s interior minister. State oversight was due to the fact that the president was also the state’s head of government at the district level – a position that came with significant powers. While this appointment process still exists today in some states, others have recently amended the status of president (Landrat) of the district council. Here, the president is now elected directly by local citizens for a term that varies from one state to the next (six years in Bavaria).
The districts’ powers complement those of the municipalities. Local public services are distributed according to a principle whereby services that exceed municipal capabilities (supralocal services) are performed by the districts. Some powers are compulsory, while others are discretionary. The districts play an equalisation role between municipalities. They have the power to force the smallest municipalities to cooperate and to relinquish their powers to the district in some areas.
Local level :
The structure of municipalities varies from one state to the next, and each state has its own set of rules. Germany’s municipal systems can be divided into one of three broad categories:
- the “mayor and deputies” system
- the northern German council system
- the southern German council system
In all three cases, municipal councillors are elected by direct universal suffrage. Many, but not all, states have introduced the same rule for mayors in recent years.
There are various forms of inter-municipal cooperation, some of which are innovative in nature:
- working groups (no legal status)
- public-law agreements under which certain powers can be delegated to a designated municipality – municipal consortia (compulsory in some cases)
- associations between metropolitan areas and the surrounding suburban areas (similar to the urban community model in France)
- “regional associations” which, in some states, have the power to set binding rules.
Under the federal constitution, municipal consortia also enjoy the right to self-government. The powers held by the districts (e.g. levying financial contributions from municipalities, taking over powers normally assigned to the municipalities) mean that inter-municipal cooperation is extremely effective in Germany.
There are also some forms of cooperation involving the federal state (Bund). Integration runs particularly deep in the transport sector. All of Germany’s major cities have a “transport community”, and this model is taken even further in the Stuttgart region, where there is an ad hoc regional authority led by a regional council, which is elected via direct universal suffrage.
Other than in these cases, the federal state (Bund) has little involvement and no formal ties at the local government level (except for in a handful of coordination bodies). The federal state has no significant devolved entities.
1960s-1970s: Merger of German municipalities[1]
In the 30 years since reunification, Germany (population: 82 million) has cut the number of municipalities from more than 30,000 to 11,313.
Municipalities predated the existence of the German state. They enjoyed broad self-government powers under the Prussian local government code of 1808. These powers were reconfirmed in the 1949 constitution. The 1970s saw sweeping reforms to the local government system in the former FRG states. On each occasion, local government mergers were imposed from the top down, without obtaining the consent of the municipalities concerned.
The number of municipalities in the FRG was cut from 25,000 to 8,500. Upon reunification, the number of municipalities in the GDR was almost identical, even though it was three times smaller and four times less populous than its neighbour. The reforms have continued to this day, although it is important to stress that the nature of these reforms differ from one state to the next. The Teufel reform, in Bade-Wurtemberg, was the most striking example. It involved merging local government entities and entrusting the management of state administrative functions to municipal officials wherever possible. The reform yielded significant savings, particularly in terms of personnel. The number of municipalities in the former GDR was cut by 35%, bringing the total across Germany (population: 82 million) to 11,313.
In 1990, reunification saw the number of municipalities almost double.
Today, the average population per municipality is 6,690, and more than 75% of Germany’s 11,313 municipalities have a population of less than 5,000.
[1] Article by Manon Meistermann, iFRAP Foundation, 2013