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The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XII, 2020

Thus, the German Constitutional Court has to continuously interpret

the concept of human dignity, which has become somehow a “supernorm”
in German law. In 1949, this was revolutionary. Until then, the state had been

the core of constitutions. Now it was farewell to the old “Obrigkeitsstaat”
(authoritarian state) – the individual was at the core.

A constitution far ahead of its time

In 1949, the Grundgesetz was already quite visionary: For instance,
it decided to abolish the death penalty. This was ahead of public opinion.
At the time of drafting, there was a spectacular case of a woman who had
poisoned her husband. Public sentiments called for vengeance. However,
the drafters of the constitution reframed the question: Should a state be
allowed to take life? In a dramatic speech recalling all the unjust killings of the
Nazis, one of the drafters, Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner, who had escaped from
the Nazis by fleeing Germany, managed to turn the tide with an impassionate
plea.

As a consequence, West-Germany abolished the death penalty in 1949,
far ahead of other Western European nations. The United Kingdom followed
suit only in 1969, France in 1981. In East Germany, the death penalty was only
abolished in 1987 - two years before reunification.

One more example: Germany’s civil code did not grant equal rights to
men and women. In case of disputes, it was the man who could take a number of
(important financial) decisions in the family. During the drafting of the
Grundgesetz, one of the only four women proposed that “Men and Women
shall have equal rights”. It was very clear that this would mean an overhaul of
existing civil code legislation. The male dominated majority refused to
contemplate this and proposed a softer version. When this was leaked to the
public the drafters received baskets full of protests. Women who had kept the
German economy going during the war were not ready to be second class citizens
any longer. They prevailed.

Checks and balances – power sharing

1933 – 1945 witnessed a highly centralized, one party state – Nazi
Germany. In order to prevent this concentration of power, the Grundgesetz

4 70 Years Old and Still Going Strong - A Look at Germany’s
Constitution 30 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall

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