by Max Barry

Latest Forum Topics

Advertisement

Post

Region: Commonwealth of Liberty

    May 1949
    Die Bundesrepublik!

T H E    F E D E R A L    R E P U B L I C

THE MUSEUM KOENIG, BONN, THE NORTHERN RHINE
THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC, New Provenance

    Listen for ambience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADMBnmgN2aQ

| The MUSEUM KOENIG in BONN — a natural history and zoological sciences building and museum in Bonn — would on the 8th of May, of 1949, be home to the Parliamentary Council of Germany (Parlamentarischer Rat), the constitutional convention of the future West German state. Over the past several months, they had worked tirelessly and with co-operation from all ideological sides — bar perhaps that of the Communists — to establish the framework for a free, democratic and capitalist and sovereign West German state. It would be federal in nature, and the civil and individual rights of the German people would be enshrined in its new BASIC LAW, which would serve as the state's official constitution. Several months of tiring work on behalf of the elected delegates to the Parliamentary Council — elected by the Lander (states) that they represented — culminated in the solemn ceremony of voting on May 8, 1949. On that day, in the Museum Koenig (for it was the only building in Bonn that was intact and large enough to house the entirety of the Parliamentary Council), the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany was RATIFIED by the aforementioned delegates. |

| The news of the ratification was transmitted to the occupying Allied powers, and on 12 May 1949 the occupying powers offered their own ratification. The parliaments of the Lander of the Trizone offered their own ratifications bar Bavaria, who rejected it due to a lack of autonomy for the individual Lander. Despite this, it was clarified that the Basic Law would still go into effect despite the Bavarian opposition should two-thirds of the other Lander vote in favor of it — which they did. The Parliamentary Council re-convened in Bonn on 23 May 1949 where, in a solemn session attended by various delegates and representatives, the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany was officially promulgated and signed into law. The period of non-existence and status as a legal nonentity for Germany had finally concluded, as the Federal Republic of Germany was finally proclaimed, although it would remain under continued Western occupation. |

    BASIC LAW — OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC

      INSPIRED by the determination to promote world peace as an equal partner in a united Europe, the German people, in the exercise of their constituent ower, have adopted this Basic Law.

    (1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.

    (2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.

    (A.2.1) Every person shall have the right to free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others or offend against the constitutional order or the moral law.

    (A.2.2.) Every person shall have the right to life and physical integrity. Freedom of the person shall be inviolable. These rights may be interfered with only pursuant to a law.

    (A.3.3.) No person shall be favored or disfavored because of sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith or religious or political opinions. No person shall be disfavored because of disability.

    (A.5.1.) Every person shall have the right to freely express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessibly sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasting and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.

    (A.9.1.) All Germans shall have the right to form societies and other associations.

    (A.10.1) The privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications shall be inviolable.

    (A.20.1-4) The Federal Republic of Germany is a democratic and social federal state. All state authority is derived from the people. It shall be exercised by the people through elections and other votes and through specific legislative, executive and judicial bodies. The legislature shall be bound by the constitutional order, the executive and the judiciary by law and justice. All Germans shall have the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order if no other remedy is available.

    (A.26.1) Acts tending to and undertaken with the intend to disturb the peaceful relations between nations, especially to prepare for a war of aggression, shall be unconstitutional. They shall be criminalized.

    (A.26.2) Weapons designed for warfare may be manufactured, transported or marketed only with permission of the Federal Government. Details shall be regulated by a federal law.

| Despite all the hurdles, despite the history, Germany now stood mostly together once more, with a bright future potentially awaiting them. The establishment of the democratic institutions of the new Federal Republic would soon begin to be set into motion, as preparations for the first federal elections, and along with it the establishment of political parties and political battle lines, prepare to begin. |

ContextReport