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Revolutionary Constitutional Lawmaking in Germany—Rediscovering the German 1989 Revolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
Abstract
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Today, the 1989 Revolution in East Germany is recognized and celebrated as the event that abolished the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and brought about German unification. What is mostly overlooked, however, is that these are not the Revolution's only and, from the perspective of constitutional law, not even its most important achievements. More important with respect to understanding constitutional lawmaking in Germany is that the 1989 Revolution did not lead to an unconditional adoption of West German constitutional law in the new East German states. Instead, the Revolution had its own constitutional agenda, which went beyond the West German Basic Law and was transferred to unified Germany where it then needed to be integrated into the existing West German constitutional order. The Article reinterprets the 1989 Revolution and shows how a revolutionary popular movement in the GDR developed its own constitutional agenda, which first found legal manifestation in GDR legislation, and then was transferred to unified Germany through the Unification Treaty and the new state constitutions.
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References
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247 See Memoire, Aide, On Art. 31 in Fischer & Künzel, supra note 102, at Bd. II, 223 et seq., 240 (showing that UT's Aide Memoire states that the goal is to further develop equal rights of the sexes in “all areas of society and life”) (author translation).Google Scholar
248 Unification Treaty, Art. 34(1).Google Scholar
249 Id. Art. 5.Google Scholar
250 See Heitmann, supra note 113, at 220–21 (showing that Heitmann denies this and asserts that Art. 5 was only added to the UT because the western SPD and Die Grünen had insisted on it in pursuance of their own political agenda and both parties’ votes were necessary for the 2/3 majority to adopt the UT, a view that contradicts everything Schäuble and de Maiziere have said about the UT).Google Scholar
251 For an overview of the new state constitutions, see e.g., Hans von Mangoldt, Die Verfassungen der neuen Bundesländer (1993).Google Scholar
252 Grundgesetz [GG], Art. 31.Google Scholar
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255 See Quint, supra note 202, at 83, 88, 89 (showing that the constitutions of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, and Thuringia were adopted by plebiscites); see id. at 79 et seq. (showing that the constitutions of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt were adopted by a 2/3 majority in the respective state parliament after extensive public hearings and discussions); Bremers, supra note 100, 160; For a different view, see Heitmann, supra note 113, at 226.Google Scholar
256 See Pieroth & Schlink, supra note 253, at paras. 62, 63.Google Scholar
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260 Quint, supra note 202, at 76.Google Scholar
261 Id. at 77.Google Scholar
262 Id. at 86–87.Google Scholar
263 Quint, supra note 99, at 311.Google Scholar
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265 Const. of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Art. 5, III.Google Scholar
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267 Const. of Saxony, Art. 7, I (emphasis added); Const. of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Art. 17, I–II; Const. of Berlin, Art. 20, I.Google Scholar
268 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 48, I; Const. of Saxony-Anhalt Art. 39, I; Const. of Thuringia Art. 36.Google Scholar
269 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 47, I; Const. Saxony-Anhalt Art. 40; Const. of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Art. 17, II; Const. of Thuringia Art. 15.Google Scholar
270 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 45, I.Google Scholar
271 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 29, II.Google Scholar
272 Const. of Saxony-Anhalt Art. 27, I; Const. of Brandenburg Art. 28; Const. of Saxony Art. 101, I.Google Scholar
273 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 47, II.Google Scholar
274 Const. of Saxony-Anhalt Art. 39, II.Google Scholar
275 Const. of Saxony Art. 8.Google Scholar
276 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 12, III. For similar provisions, see the Const. of Saxony-Anhalt, Art. 34; Mecklenburgwest Pomerania, Art. 13; Thuringia, Art. 2 II; and Berlin Art. 10 III.Google Scholar
277 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 48, III.Google Scholar
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279 Const. of Berlin Art. 12, VII.Google Scholar
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281 Supra, at 595, 596.Google Scholar
282 See, e.g., Konrad Hesse, Grundzüge des Verfassungsrechts der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, para. 208 (20. Aufllage 1999).Google Scholar
283 Const. of Saxony Art. 7, I (emphasis added); Const. of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Art. 17, I-II; Const. of Berlin Art. 20, I.Google Scholar
284 Starck, supra note 258, at paras. 58 et seq.; Bremers, supra note 100, at 153 et seq. Google Scholar
285 See, e.g., Const. of Saxony Art. 10, I; Const. of Brandenburg Art. 39, I; Const. of Saxony-Anhalt, Art. 2, I; Const. of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania Art. 12.Google Scholar
286 Const. of Saxony Art. 10 II; Const. of Brandenburg Art. 39, VIII (containing provisions that go back to Art. 33 (3) of the RTD).Google Scholar
287 Const. of Brandenburg Art. 39, VII; Const. of Saxony-Anhalt Art. 6, II; Const. Saxony Art. 34; Const. of Thuringia Art. 33.Google Scholar
288 See Arendt, supra note 26, at 25 (stating that “facts … do not disappear when historians or sociologists refuse to learn from them, though they may when everybody has forgotten them”).Google Scholar
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290 For an analysis of the 1989 Revolution's impact on unified Germany's constitutional law, see Jaggi, Stephan, The 1989 Revolution in East Germany and its Impact on Unified Germany'S Constitutional Law (Hart & Nomos, 2016).Google Scholar
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