Frankfurt’s western runway opened in 1984 after years of protest, some of it violent. When the airport planned its next runway, the state government of Hesse took a different route. In 1998, at its suggestion, a mediation group was formed with environmental groups and the towns under the flight path, to discuss the expansion with an open outcome. In January 2000, the group supported a new landing runway, on one main condition: ein striktes Nachtflugverbot zwischen 23:00 und 5:00 Uhr, a strict ban on night flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. The airport accepted the ban when it applied for the runway. The state’s approval of 2007 still allowed seventeen night flights. In October 2011, days before the new runway opened, the state’s highest administrative court imposed the night ban.
Bishops and Laity at One Table
In 2018, a study on sexual abuse in the German Catholic Church was published. In March 2019, the bishops responded with a unanimous decision for a verbindlichen Synodalen Weg, a binding synodal path. The bishops’ conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics, the lay organization, shared responsibility for it. In its assembly of more than 200 members, lay members voted with full rights alongside the bishops. A decision also needed a two-thirds majority of the bishops. It met five times in Frankfurt between 2020 and 2023. Rome objected. In July 2022, the Holy See declared that the Synodal Path was nicht befugt, not authorized, to oblige bishops and the faithful to accept new forms of church government.
Legitimacy Through Procedure
In 1969, the sociologist Niklas Luhmann published Legitimation durch Verfahren, legitimacy through procedure. Luhmann argued that people do not accept decisions by the state because of ideas about what is right. They accept them because they believe in the procedure that produced them, while the outcome is still open, and because they took part in that procedure.
All Those Affected
In Faktizität und Geltung (Between Facts and Norms, 1992), the philosopher Jürgen Habermas defined which rules are valid: Gültig sind genau die Handlungsnormen, denen alle möglicherweise Betroffenen als Teilnehmer an rationalen Diskursen zustimmen könnten. (Valid are exactly those norms of action to which all those possibly affected could agree as participants in rational discourse.)
The Works Council Law of 1920
On 18 January 1920, the Reichstag passed the Betriebsrätegesetz, the Works Council Act. Every establishment with twenty or more employees had to let its workers elect a works council. The law was contested. On 13 January, during the debate, about 100,000 people demonstrated in front of the Reichstag. The police opened fire. Forty-two people died and 105 were injured. The Nazi regime abolished the law in 1934. Today’s law on changes in operations still draws its line at twenty. It applies in companies with more than twenty employees entitled to vote.
When the Whole Theater Decided
In the 1970s, two of Germany’s most innovative theaters tried full co-determination. At the Schaubühne in Berlin, from 1970, the general assembly of all staff elected three of the five members of the theater’s board and could veto all its decisions. At the Schauspiel Frankfurt, from 1972, the director Peter Palitzsch wanted a Mitbestimmungstheater, a co-determination theater, inspired by the ideas of 1968. The general assembly of the entire staff was its most important body. Palitzsch left in 1980. Under his successors, after a scandal, the city’s head of culture suspended the model.
The Investor Deal That Was Called Off
In December 2023, the 36 clubs of the German Football League voted in a secret ballot to sell a share of a company holding their media rights to an investor. The deal needed a two-thirds majority, and it passed with exactly the 24 votes required. It was reported that the head of Hannover 96 had voted against his own club’s instruction. Fans protested in stadiums across the country with silence and with tennis balls and chocolate coins thrown onto the pitch. On 3 February 2024, a match between Hertha BSC and Hamburger SV was stopped for more than thirty minutes. On 21 February 2024, the league ended the process. Hans-Joachim Watzke, chairman of its supervisory board, said: Eine erfolgreiche Fortführung des Prozesses scheint in Anbetracht der aktuellen Entwicklungen nicht mehr möglich. (Given the current developments, a successful continuation of the process no longer seems possible.)
The Residents of Grünheide
In 2024, Tesla wanted to expand its car plant in Grünheide near Berlin with a freight station, warehouses and a daycare center for employees. More than 100 hectares of forest were to be cleared. The municipality asked its residents. On 20 February 2024, it announced the result: 3,499 against and 1,882 in favor, with a turnout of over 70 percent. The vote was not binding. The state’s economy minister said it showed dass die Bedenken und Befürchtungen der Menschen deutlich überwiegen, that people’s concerns and fears clearly outweigh the rest. Tesla cut its plan. Instead of 100 hectares, 50 were to be cleared, and the planned logistics areas and the daycare center were dropped. On 16 May 2024, the municipal council approved the smaller plan.
The Arbitration on Live Television
Stuttgart 21, the plan to put Stuttgart’s main station underground, was first presented to the public in 1994. The formal approval procedure began in 2001. In 2010, when construction started, the protests grew. On 30 September 2010, the police used water cannons in the palace garden, and hundreds of people were injured. The state’s premier then proposed an arbitration led by Heiner Geißler, a former CDU federal minister. From 22 October to 30 November 2010, supporters and opponents argued over the facts in Stuttgart’s city hall, and the sessions were broadcast live on television, radio and the internet. The news channel Phoenix had its second-highest ratings up to that time. A year later, on 27 November 2011, the state held a referendum on leaving the project. Statewide, 58.9 percent voted against leaving it.
The Round Table
On 7 December 1989, a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Zentraler Runder Tisch, the Central Round Table, met for the first time in East Berlin. Church representatives without a vote called the meeting and chaired it. The seats were divided equally, 19 to 19, between the old forces of the GDR and the new opposition groups. One of its first and most important subjects was the dissolution of the Stasi. It met sixteen times, for the last time on 12 March 1990, just before the first free election. Round tables on the same model were set up across the country, down to the level of towns. The table was named after the Polish round table. Its seating was rectangular.