| 1. | This chapter deals with the development of German administrative law from German reunification until today: When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990, the constitution of West Germany, the German Basic Law adopted on 23 May 1949 entered into force for the territory of the former GDR. Thus, the GDR ceased to exist with its accession to the Federal Republic of Germany – and the laws of the GDR (shaped by socialist legal thought) were mostly either formally repealed or superseded by West German legislation. Therefore, the narrative of modern German law is the narrative of German law under the German Basic Law of 23 May 1949, this having become the constitution for Germany as a whole on 3 October 1990 (par. 6). |
| 2. | German reunification tested the (previously) West German administrative law by transferring it to an entirely new environment (par. 7 et seqq.). This complete adoption of the highly sophisticated West German administrative law system posed considerable challenges for the authorities and institutions in the territory of the former GDR. In particular, the new federal states lacked suitably trained civil servants in the upper echelons of the civil service. Nearly all authorities and institutions had to be built anew, and the material prerequisites for a modern office organisation had to be created (par. 9). In addition, it was necessary to implement highly complex legislation concerning the privatisation of former state-owned enterprises, the remedying of GDR injustice, and the restitution of assets (par. 11). Thirty years after reunification, this process can be considered completed. |
| 3. | The enormous challenges of rebuilding in the new federal states, added to the problems triggered in West Germany by the structural change from an industrial to a service society and its economic consequences, ultimately raised the question whether the basic structure of administration and administrative law, developed in the comparatively “placid” “Bonn Republic”, could adequately fulfil its tasks in times of enormous pressure to cut costs and an increasingly diversified society (par. 2 et seqq.). This also led to a new political style at the federal level of the “Berlin Republic” (adopted by some federal states). Aiming to address a far-reaching critique of the tasks of the state and thus also an extensive restructuring of the executive, this new political style tried to create an investment-friendly legal environment, often by means of measures intended to “accelerate” administrative (court) procedures (par. 14 et seq.), reduce bureaucracy (par. 19), privatise public services (par. 20 et seq.), implement New Public Management (par. 22), and reform social administration (par. 25 et seqq.). At the turn of the millennium, the digital revolution became an additional factor for change, but it has tended to reinforce the trends already established in the 1990s (par. 31 et seqq.). |
| 4. | Similar changes would presumably have occurred without the Federal Republic of Germany’s membership in the European Union, but the obligation to implement Union law has given them a special form (Art. 4 [3] TEU). It seems that neither German politics nor German scholarship has fully processed this fact yet (par. 36 et seqq.). By contrast, even if the application of EU law by national authorities and courts poses specific challenges, there is no need to generally revise German administrative legal thinking: The effects of EU law on German administrative law should neither be under- nor overestimated (par. 45 et seqq.). |
| 5. | It remains to be seen what administrative consequences the “Coronavirus crisis”, which broke out in mid-March 2020, will have for Germany and Europe in the medium and long term: they will initially depend on the extent and nature of the economic and social consequences of this crisis at the national and European level. They will also depend on the extent to which the unresolved social, economic, and political problems in Germany and Europe, which have accumulated over the past thirty years, will further increase the economic and social consequences of the “Coronavirus crisis”. Ultimately, it must become clear whether the current German administration and administrative law are only equipped to handle fair-weather conditions or whether they can be part not only of the problem but also of the solution (and succeed in communicating this, par. 50). |
