Germany’s constitutional court cannot start a case. Handed eight, it banned a party, stopped a census and voided Berlin’s rent cap

17 August 1956 · 1 BvB 2/51 · BVerfGE 5, 85

The only party ever banned that had sat in the Bundestag

On the federal government’s own application, Karlsruhe banned the KPD, the Communist Party, as anti-constitutional. It had won 5.7% and 15 seats in 1949 and had lost them by 1953. The government applied in November 1951 and waited four years and nine months. The ban set the precedent of a “streitbare Demokratie”, a democracy that defends itself.

Overruled: Citizens & parties · Prevailed: Federal government

Source: BVerfGE 5, 85 · Deutscher Bundestag

15 January 1958 · 1 BvR 400/51 · BVerfGE 7, 198

A boycott call carried basic rights into private life

On 20 September 1950 Erich Lüth called for a boycott of Unsterbliche Geliebte, a new film by Veit Harlan, who had directed the antisemitic Nazi film “Jud Süß”. Lüth lost in the Hamburg civil courts. Seven years later Karlsruhe quashed their injunction: basic rights reach into private law too (“Drittwirkung”, their effect between private parties). Every German free-speech case since stands on it.

Overruled: Ordinary courts · Prevailed: Citizens & parties

Source: BVerfGE 7, 198 · de.wikipedia “Lüth-Urteil”

31 July 1973 · 2 BvF 1/73 · BVerfGE 36, 1

Bavaria sued over the treaty with East Germany, and had its answer in 64 days

The Bayerische Staatsregierung, Bavaria’s government, asked the court on 28 May 1973 to strike down Willy Brandt’s Basic Treaty with the GDR. Only a government, a Land or a quarter of the Bundestag may bring such a case. On 31 July, 64 days later, Bavaria lost. The treaty stood, but only as the court read it: a working arrangement, not formal recognition of the GDR, keeping a single German citizenship until 1990.

Bound: Bundestag, Federal government, Foreign & EU · Prevailed: Citizens & parties · Refused: The Länder

Source: BVerfGE 36, 1 · Berlinfographics fact-check

15 December 1983 · 1 BvR 209/83 u. a. · BVerfGE 65, 1

Six complaints stopped a national census

The court halted the count on 13 April 1983. On 15 December it struck down the data-sharing clauses of the census law (§ 9 Abs. 1–3), let the count go ahead only under new safeguards, and named a right written nowhere in the Grundgesetz: “informationelle Selbstbestimmung”, the right to decide what is known about you.

Overruled: Bundestag · Bound: Federal government · Prevailed: Citizens & parties

Source: BVerfGE 65, 1 · Berlinfographics fact-check

12 October 1993 · 2 BvR 2134/92 u. a. · BVerfGE 89, 155

The complaint failed, but Karlsruhe kept a check on the European Union

The Maastricht Treaty was ratified. What survives is the court’s claim to review whether an act of the Union exceeds the powers Germany handed over, and its name for the Union: a “Staatenverbund”, a union of states. Karlsruhe had first reserved the right to test European law against German basic rights in 1974, and suspended that reservation in 1986.

Bound: Foreign & EU · Prevailed: Bundestag, Federal government · Refused: Citizens & parties

Source: BVerfGE 89, 155 · BVerfGE 2, 1; 144, 20; 2 BvB 1/19

12 July 1994 · 2 BvE 3/92 u. a. · BVerfGE 90, 286

The FDP sued the government it sat in, and parliament won a say over armed missions

The SPD and FDP groups in the Bundestag challenged the Adriatic embargo patrol, the AWACS flights over Bosnia and the logistics battalion sent to Somalia for UNOSOM II. Karlsruhe held deployments outside the NATO area lawful, but ruled that armed deployments abroad need the Bundestag’s consent: in advance, or straight afterwards in an emergency. It is why the Bundestag votes on armed missions abroad.

Bound: Federal government, Foreign & EU · Prevailed: Bundestag

Source: BVerfGE 90, 286

30 June 2009 · 2 BvE 2/08 u. a. · BVerfGE 123, 267

The treaty passed. The Bundestag’s own law did not

The Lisbon Treaty itself was compatible with the Grundgesetz. The accompanying law the Bundestag had passed was not: it gave parliament too little say over what Germany would agree to in the EU. Ratification waited for a better law, with the Bundesrat’s say strengthened too. Among those who brought the case were the Die Linke group in the Bundestag and the MP Peter Gauweiler.

Overruled: Bundestag · Bound: Federal government, Foreign & EU · Prevailed: The Länder, Citizens & parties

Source: BVerfGE 123, 267 · de.wikipedia “Lissabon-Urteil”

25 March 2021 · 2 BvF 1/20 u. a. · BVerfGE 157, 223

284 MPs asked whether Berlin could cap its rents. The answer: void

Members of the Bundestag from the CDU/CSU and FDP filed on 6 May 2020, joined by two referrals from the Landgericht Berlin. On 25 March 2021 the court held the rent cap “mit dem Grundgesetz unvereinbar und deshalb nichtig”: incompatible with the Basic Law, and therefore void. Rent law belongs to the federal parliament. Landlords could claim the difference back to February 2020, when the law took effect.

Overruled: The Länder · Bound: Citizens & parties · Prevailed: Bundestag, Ordinary courts

Source: BVerfGE 157, 223 · bvg21-028 · Berlinfographics fact-check

1956–2021 · all eight

Three laws fell. Everywhere else, the court redrew who may decide

The Bundestag was overruled two times and a Land one time. Across the eight rulings the court overruled a player five times, left ten standing only on its own conditions, and eleven times handed a player what it asked for or a power it had not had before. Citizens came out ahead in four.

Source: Berlinfographics fact-check