’75 Years of the Basic Law: Is Our Federal System Still Fit for Purpose?’

Academic conference to be held on October 8, 2024, at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Located in Berlin’s Leipziger Straße, the Bundesrat ensures that the indiv
Located in Berlin’s Leipziger Straße, the Bundesrat ensures that the individual federal state governments directly participate in the decisions taken by the nation state. Image Credit: Bundesrat
As part of the celebrations surrounding the seventy-fifth anniversary of the German Basic Law, the Chair of German Politics at Freie Universität Berlin is organizing an international conference on Tuesday, October 8, 2024. Held in cooperation with the international organization Forum of Federations, this conference will discuss important questions concerning the further development and modernization of the German federal state. Bearing the title "75 Years of the Basic Law: Is Our Federal System Still Fit for Purpose?" the conference aims to discuss whether the German federal state in its current form is equipped to deal with the challenges of the future - or whether reform is necessary. The conference will take place at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities with German Federal Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser expected to be in attendance. Other guests and panelists include representatives from German federal agencies, German federal states, embassies, foundations, and the field of academia.

The German federal government and the individual German states are faced with increasingly complex tasks. At the same time, dealing with persistent crises demands continual collaboration - something which is becoming more difficult in times of growing polarization. These challenges are testing not only the federal division of tasks, but also the German model of cooperation between the federal government and the states.

The conference will deal with the key tasks facing the federal state of the future, such as climate policy, energy policy, and the digitization of public tasks. What reforms to the institutional framework of the federal state are necessary, and what obstacles must be overcome in order to meet these challenges head on? Bringing together a range of international perspectives from both academia and practice, the conference seeks answers to these central questions facing the German constitutional system. 

The keynote speech will be held by Nancy Faeser, German Federal Minister of the Interior and Community.

The event is jointly organized by the Forum of Federations and the Chair of German Politics at Freie Universität Berlin. The Forum of Federations is an international organization that develops and shares comparative expertise on the practice of federal and decentralized governance through a global network. The Chair of German Politics, based at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin, researches federalism, including from a comparative perspective.

The conference is funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. Attendance is free; those interested in attending are asked to register in advance at: https://75jahrebundesstaat.de/pa­rticipate. The conference language is German, but translation into English will be made available.

The Latin words veritas, justitia, and libertas, which frame the seal of Freie Universität Berlin, stand for the values that have defined the academic ethos of Freie Universität since its founding in December 1948.