Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany

The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (in German: Grundgesetz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the current constitution of Germany.

Originally put into effect in 1949 as the constitution of West Germany, it was intentionally not named "constitution" (which would have been Verfassung in German) to make a point that West Germany was only considered a temporary solution until German reunification would be achieved. The belief at the time was that this would not take long; however, the Cold War that emerged caused the separation to last more than 40 years, and since the reunification of the two Germanys in 1990 was technically executed as East Germany joining the west, the Grundgesetz is in effect still today. Some amendments with respect to reunification were made in 1990 and 1994, however.

See also

• History of Germany
• Politics of Germany

External links

• Text of the German constitution, in English, as PDF (http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/the_basic_law.pdf)
• Text of the German constitution, in German, as PDF (http://www.bundestag.de/gesetze/gg/)
• another source, HTML (http://www.datenschutz-berlin.de/recht/de/gg/)