German Federalism: How Power is Split Between Bund and Länder

German federalism is not a feature added to the constitution as decoration — it is load-bearing structural engineering. The Grundgesetz (Basic Law) was drafted in 1948–49 under Allied supervision, and the Western occupying powers insisted that the new state be federal precisely because a strongly centralized government had been a prerequisite for the Nazi seizure of power. Federalism, in other words, was designed as a circuit-breaker.

The starting principle sits in Article 30 GG: "The exercise of state powers and the discharge of state functions is a matter for the Länder insofar as this Basic Law dös not otherwise provide." In plain English: unless the Grundgesetz specifically gives a power to the federal government (the Bund), that power belongs to the sixteen federal states (the Länder). This is the opposite of the French model, where the centre holds everything not explicitly devolved.

The Grundgesetz then distributes legislative competences across three categories:

1. Exclusive federal powers (ausschließliche Gesetzgebung des Bundes, Art. 71, 73 GG). The Bund alone legislates on foreign affairs, defence, citizenship, currency, customs, airspace, federal railways, postal and telecommunications matters, and cooperation between federal and state authorities in criminal police matters. The Länder may legislate in these areas only if a federal law expressly authorises them to do so (Art. 71 GG).

2. Exclusive Länder powers. These are not listed in one single article because they are the residual — everything that is neither assigned exclusively to the Bund nor placed under concurrent competence. Culture, education, policing, local government organisation, broadcasting, and the structure of state administration are the classic examples. This is why people speak of the Kulturhoheit der Länder (cultural sovereignty of the states).

3. Concurrent powers (konkurrierende Gesetzgebung, Art. 72, 74 GG). Here, both levels can in principle legislate, but as long as and insofar as the Bund has exercised the power, the Länder are pre-empted (Art. 72(1) GG). Concurrent powers cover most of civil and criminal law, labour law, social security, road traffic law, environmental protection, and much of economic regulation. For certain subjects the Bund may only act if federal legislation is "necessary to establish equivalent living conditions" in the federal territory (Art. 72(2) GG) — a clause that the Federal Constitutional Court takes seriously.

A fourth, technical category — Abweichungsgesetzgebung (deviation legislation) — was added by the 2006 Föderalismusreform. In a narrow set of fields (for example, higher-education admission rules and parts of environmental law), Länder may enact law that deviates from federal law, with the later rule prevailing (Art. 72(3) GG).

The practical result is a genuine vertical separation of powers. Neither level can abolish the other. Länder have their own constitutions, parliaments (Landtage), governments, courts, and — critically — their own tax-funded civil services, which execute most federal law on the ground (Art. 83 GG). The federal government has comparatively few of its own administrative agencies; most of the state's daily contact with citizens happens through Land or municipal authorities.

Sources: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Art. 30, 70–74 (official English text at gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg). Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (BpB), Föderalismus in Deutschland (bpb.de, 2023). Stern/Sodan/Möstl, Staatsrecht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2nd ed., C.H. Beck 2022, §27.