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The Basic Law
The Grundgesetz, the Basic Law, was adopted by the Parliamentary Council and came into force on May 23, 1949, in the western zones of occupied Germany. It was deliberately called a Basic Law rather than a constitution, because it was meant to be provisional until Germany could be reunified. When reunification came in 1990, the eastern states joined the Federal Republic under the Basic Law, and it remained in force. Its first article places human dignity above everything else, a direct response to the crimes of National Socialism. The first nineteen articles set out the basic rights, among them equality before the law, freedom of faith, freedom of expression and of the press, and the right of assembly. Article 20 defines Germany as a democratic and social federal state in which all state authority is derived from the people. Under Article 79, the principles of Articles 1 and 20 may not be changed even by a constitutional amendment, the so-called eternity clause. The Federal Agency for Civic Education and the state agencies distribute the Basic Law free of charge, and many Germans keep a copy at home. Its sentences are short and dense, and translating them precisely is a known challenge; the official English translation renders Article 1 as «Human dignity shall be inviolable».