A German law of 1921 on the religious upbringing of children gives the child a voice that grows with age. When a court has to decide about a child’s religion, a child of ten or older must be heard. From twelve, the child cannot be raised in a different faith against its will.
From fourteen, the child alone decides which religious confession to follow.
The supervisory board of a German stock corporation appoints the members of the management board for at most five years. A reappointment requires a new resolution of the supervisory board.
The Stock Corporation Act sets the earliest date for that resolution. It can be passed “frühestens ein Jahr vor Ablauf der bisherigen Amtszeit”, at the earliest one year before the current term ends.
When the federal government introduces a bill, the Basic Law gives the Bundesrat six weeks to comment. If the Bundesrat asks for more time for an important reason, “insbesondere mit Rücksicht auf den Umfang einer Vorlage”, especially in view of the length of a bill, the period becomes nine weeks.
The government may mark a bill as especially urgent. It can then pass the bill to the Bundestag after three weeks, or after six if the Bundesrat asked for more time. For amendments to the Basic Law the period is always nine weeks, and the urgency rule does not apply.
Under German law, parents cannot give their consent to the adoption of their child until the child is eight weeks old. § 1747 of the Civil Code says: “Die Einwilligung kann erst erteilt werden, wenn das Kind acht Wochen alt ist.”
Even when everyone has agreed before the birth, the consent cannot become valid earlier. The only exception is an unmarried father without custody, who may consent before the birth.
On 13 November 2014 the Bundestag began its work on assisted suicide with an orientation debate of about four hours. Party discipline was lifted. Almost a year later, on 6 November 2015, the members voted on a law, again without party discipline.
On 26 February 2020 the Federal Constitutional Court struck down the 2015 law, and the work began again. The Bundestag held a new general debate on 18 May 2022. On 6 July 2023 it rejected both cross-party bills.
On 28 November 2018 the Bundestag held a debate of two and a half hours on organ donation. No bill had yet been submitted. The debate was open as to its result, and party discipline was lifted.
Groups of members from different parties then wrote their own bills. On 16 January 2020 the Bundestag rejected the proposal that everyone would count as a donor unless they objected. 379 members voted against it and 292 for it. The Bundestag chose another solution instead. Citizens are to be approached about organ donation at least every ten years when they collect their identity card.
At the Diet of Worms in April 1521, Martin Luther stood before the emperor. His writings were laid before him, and he was told to recant them in public. Luther had expected a discussion. He hesitated and asked for time to think.
The emperor gave him 24 hours. On the next day, 18 April, Luther answered: “Widerrufen kann und will ich nichts, weil es weder sicher noch geraten ist, etwas gegen sein Gewissen zu tun.” I cannot and will not recant anything, because it is neither safe nor wise to act against conscience.
Richard Wagner saw his cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen as a single whole. When its first part, Das Rheingold, was ready, the cycle was not. Wagner wanted to wait until it was complete and stage it himself. King Ludwig II of Bavaria did not want to wait. He scheduled the performance at the Royal Court and National Theater in Munich, and Das Rheingold was first performed on September 22, 1869. Wagner stayed away from the premiere.
Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination, the STIKO, was set up in 1972. It is a volunteer group of experts. In July 2021 Bavaria’s Minister-President Markus Söder pushed for a faster general COVID-19 vaccination recommendation for children from 12. He contrasted the volunteer committee with the “professionals” of the European Medicines Agency. The STIKO answered publicly that the statements of Söder and other politicians were “ungewöhnlich und müssen korrigiert werden”, unusual and in need of correction. It works, it said, independently of the opinions and wishes of politicians and the pharmaceutical industry. On 16 August 2021 the committee recommended vaccination for everyone from 12. It named a careful evaluation of new scientific data as the reason.
In 1814 the jurist Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut published an essay on the necessity of a general civil law for Germany. He called for one simple and understandable civil code for all German lands. In the same year Friedrich Carl von Savigny replied with Vom Beruf unserer Zeit für Gesetzgebung und Rechtswissenschaft, on the vocation of our age for legislation and legal science. For Savigny, law grows organically, and legal scholarship should first take up the customary law of the people. Erst am Ende dieser Entwicklung sah Savigny eine Kodifikation als möglich an. (Only at the end of this development did Savigny consider a codification possible.) The German Civil Code was passed in 1896, after 23 years of work. It came into force on 1 January 1900.