A Kleingarten, an allotment garden, is a private space of one’s own. It is also regulated by a federal law, in force since 1 April 1983. The garden is for growing produce for one’s own use and for recreation, not for business. The garden hut may cover at most 24 square meters, including a covered seating area. In 2004, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that, as a rule, at least a third of the plot should be used to grow fruit and vegetables for the household.
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When the Frame Itself Changed
Until 2006, the Basic Law allowed the federal government to pass Rahmengesetze, framework laws. They did not regulate an area completely. The states had to fill in the frame, and the federal law could go into detail only in exceptional cases. The universities and the civil service were regulated this way. Changing this system took years. In 2003, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat set up a joint commission under Edmund Stoiber and Franz Müntefering. On 17 December 2004, it failed over the question of who controls education. The coalition agreement of 2005 restarted the reform on the basis of the commission’s work. The Bundestag passed it on 30 June 2006 with 428 votes to 162, and the Bundesrat on 7 July 2006. On 1 September 2006, the federal power to pass framework laws was abolished.
The Seat Belt
From 1 January 1976, drivers and front-seat passengers in West Germany had to wear seat belts. No penalty was attached, and the rule met strong resistance from many drivers. In August 1984, a fine was introduced. Within a few months, the share of people wearing the belt rose to 92 percent. By 2015, it had reached about 98 percent.
A Change Without Effect Until It Is Registered
When the shareholders of a German limited company, a GmbH, want to change its articles of association, the decision needs three quarters of the votes cast. A notary must record it. The change must then be filed with the commercial register. Until it is entered there, it has no legal effect: Die Abänderung hat keine rechtliche Wirkung, bevor sie in das Handelsregister des Sitzes der Gesellschaft eingetragen ist. (The amendment has no legal effect before it is entered in the commercial register at the company’s seat.)
Final and Binding
A German administrative decision, such as a building permit, can usually be challenged by an objection within one month. After that, the decision becomes bestandskräftig. The word has no exact English equivalent. It means that the decision now binds both the authority and the person it is addressed to, and that it can no longer be challenged with ordinary legal remedies. The authority may still withdraw or revoke it in certain cases, and the case can be reopened on application. For decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court, the law states the binding effect directly: they bind the constitutional bodies of the federation and the states, and all courts and authorities.
Trust-Based Working Time
About one in five employees in Germany works under Vertrauensarbeitszeit, working time based on trust. What counts is that agreed tasks are done, not that the employee is present. The employee organizes his own hours and records them himself. The employer remains responsible for compliance with the legal limits on working time. On 14 May 2019, the European Court of Justice ruled that employers must record daily working time. The employers’ association Gesamtmetall called trust-based working time praktisch tot, practically dead. On 13 September 2022, the Federal Labor Court ruled that this duty applies to German employers unmittelbar und sofort, directly and immediately.
The Right to Direct
One sentence of the German Trade Regulation Act sets out how far a boss may give instructions. Der Arbeitgeber kann Inhalt, Ort und Zeit der Arbeitsleistung nach billigem Ermessen näher bestimmen, soweit diese Arbeitsbedingungen nicht durch den Arbeitsvertrag, Bestimmungen einer Betriebsvereinbarung, eines anwendbaren Tarifvertrages oder gesetzliche Vorschriften festgelegt sind. (The employer may specify the content, place and time of work in more detail at fair discretion, insofar as these conditions are not already fixed by the employment contract, a works agreement, an applicable collective agreement or statute.) The boss decides only in the space that the contract, works agreements, collective agreements and statutes leave open, and even there he must decide fairly.
The Eternity Clause
Most of the German Basic Law can be changed with two-thirds of the Bundestag and two-thirds of the Bundesrat. Some of it cannot be changed at all. Article 79(3) says that an amendment is unzulässig, not permitted, if it touches the division of the federation into states, the participation of the states in making laws, or the principles laid down in Articles 1 and 20. Article 1 protects human dignity. Article 20 defines Germany as a democratic and social federal state under the rule of law. The clause answers the experience of the Nazi era, and above all the Enabling Act of 24 March 1933.
The Provisional Constitution That Stayed
In 1948 and 1949, the heads of the West German states avoided the word Verfassung, constitution, because they wanted to stress that the new order was provisional. They called it the Grundgesetz, the Basic Law. Its preamble said it would give dem staatlichen Leben für eine Übergangszeit eine neue Ordnung, a new order to the life of the state for a transitional period. It came into force in May 1949. In 1990, Article 146 offered the option of a new constitution for all of Germany. It was not used. East Germany joined the area where the Basic Law applied, and the reform efforts after unification ended with marginal changes in 1994. The provisional order is still in force. It has been amended about sixty times.
The Duty to Keep the Peace
German labor law speaks of peace here. While a collective wage agreement is in force, neither side may take industrial action, strikes or lockouts, over the matters it settles. This is the Friedenspflicht, the duty to keep the peace. It does not have to be written into the agreement, because it is considered inherent in every collective agreement. Strikes over matters the agreement does not cover remain allowed. Inside a company, the law goes further. Industrial action between employer and works council is not allowed at all, and both must avoid anything that disturbs den Frieden des Betriebs, the peace of the workplace.