Federal Republic of Germany

J

Communications

The German Basic Law, or constitution, guarantees the freedom of the press. Germany has high newspaper readership and a well-informed population. Major daily publications include the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, and the Berlin Tagesspiegel. Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are weeklies with national circulation. Bild is a mass-circulation tabloid. Party-owned and government-run publications in the former East Germany were privatized after 1989.

Germany’s competitive television market is the largest in Europe. Numerous commercial broadcasters compete with public broadcasters for national and regional audiences. Each of Germany’s 16 regions regulates its own broadcasting services and provides local public television and radio services. Nearly all German homes have access to cable or satellite television, and the German government has actively promoted the development of digital television and radio services.

The German telephone system is modern, automatic, and also nearly universal. The system relies on satellites, cable, and microwave radio relay (MRR) networks. Before unification, this state of development did not apply to East Germany, where only the government and the secret police had efficient communications at their disposal. Since 1990, however, massive Western transfer payments have given eastern Germany a highly advanced communications system, although the distribution of private telephones has not yet caught up with standards in the former West Germany.

Deutsche Post AG, a formerly state-owned business that was privatized in 2000, is Germany’s largest postal carrier; in 2002 the company received a license to deliver mail in the United Kingdom, ending the long-held monopoly of Britain’s publicly owned Royal Mail. Deutsche Telekom AG, a privately held corporation since 1996, is Germany’s largest telecommunications company. Its subsidiaries oversee national and international telecommunications operations, and include T-Com (conventional telephone network), T-Mobile (mobile telephones), and T-Online (Internet services). Deutsche Telekom also holds interests in various other telephone companies, including subsidiaries in Croatia, Hungary, and Slovakia.

---

---

K

Tourism

Germany’s beautiful scenery and varied culture attract many tourists, both foreign and domestic. Tourists tend to favor the resorts of the North and Baltic seas, the Alps, the forests of the southern uplands, and the valleys of the Rhine, Main, Mosel, Neckar, upper Elbe, and Danube rivers. Since unification, tourists have gained access to the natural parks of former East Germany, such as those of the Oder (Odra) Valley or the island of Rügen. Tourists also flock to Germany’s many medieval cities, including those along the so-called Romantic Road from Würzburg to Augsburg, and to the baroque wonders and art collections of Dresden. Large numbers of tourists attend famous music and theater festivals, such as the Wagner Opera Festival at Bayreuth and the Passion Play in Oberammergau. Ski resorts in the Alps draw many people, as do the numerous noteworthy spas and health resorts, such as Bad Kissingen and Bad Schandau.

VI

Government

After Germany’s defeat in World War II, the Allied forces of France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(USSR) divided the country into four zones. In 1948 France, Britain, and the United States merged their zones into one region while the Soviet Union imposed Communist rule over its zone. In 1949 this division of Germany was perpetuated by the creation of East Germany and West Germany.

In West Germany, a council composed of members of the state legislatures created the Basic Law, or constitution, in 1948 and 1949. It was approved by the state legislatures and by U.S., British, and French occupation authorities. The Basic Law established West Germany as a parliamentary democracy and a federation of states (see Federalism). It has been amended many times, most recently in the 1990s to help anchor the unification of East and West Germany in the constitution. At that point, Germany decided to reconstitute the five original states of East Germany and to admit them, one by one, into the federal union without changing the basic structure of the West German system. The Unity Treaty of 1990 permitted East Germany to retain some of its laws that conflicted with West German statutes until the all-German parliament could bring about a uniform settlement.

A

Federal Union

The kind of federalism set forth in the Basic Law is based on German federal traditions and differs from the federal system of the United States. German federalism concentrates legislative power at the federal level and places administrative and judicial powers at the state level. Each state has a popularly elected legislature, which chooses a minister-president or a first mayor (in Hamburg and Bremen) to serve as chief executive. There is very little for the 16 state assemblies to legislate because the Basic Law subordinates most state legislative powers to the federal government. However, the states formulate some educational and cultural policies and maintain police. The administration of all laws, including federal laws, is almost exclusively in the hands of the states. Federal administration—except for the foreign service, border protection, and defense—is limited to the personnel of federal cabinet ministries and institutes. These federal bodies collect statistics and draw up legislative bills for policy-making. Even taxation is mostly federally legislated and state administered, including the largest sources of revenue, income and corporation taxes. These taxes are shared by the state and federal levels and, in part, are redistributed from the richer to the poorer states.

The key German federal institution is the Bundesrat (Federal Council), which is the representative of the state governments and has the final say in disputes between states and between the states and the federal government. The Bundesrat is the upper house of parliament but its members are state ministers or civil servants and are not elected; instead their respective state governments appoint them. Of Germany’s 16 states, the four largest—North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, and Bavaria—are all in the west and tend to predominate in the Bundesrat. The five states of former East Germany—which are mostly poor and, with the exception of Saxony, small in population—play a lesser role in federal politics.

B

Executive

Germany has a parliamentary head of government, or prime minister, called the chancellor. The chancellor is chosen by a majority vote of the popularly elected lower house of parliament, the Bundestag (Federal Assembly), usually by a coalition of parties. The chancellor selects a cabinet of ministers from among the parties in the coalition. The Basic Law gives the chancellor the authority to determine the guidelines of government policy and to select and dismiss the ministers. The chancellor can be removed from office only if the Bundestag elects a successor or when the Bundestag itself is reelected. Due to the existence of strong, disciplined parties, Germany has a stable system of government with little turnover.

The federal president, who acts as the head of state, is elected for a five-year term by the Bundesversammlung (Federal Convention), which consists of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members from the state legislatures. The president’s functions are largely ceremonial and nonpartisan. The president receives foreign ambassadors and promulgates laws but has no authority to make policy.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain