British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's constitutional maneuvers to prorogue Parliament would be unthinkable in Germany. Constitutional law professors in the country say they're baffled by recent developments in the UK.
Image: Reuters/D. Martinez
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson's move this week to suspend Parliament, in an apparent attempt to prevent MPs from blocking the UK's withdrawal from the European Union without a deal, has been condemned as anti-democratic by numerous high-profile politicians and large segments of the British public.
Such a maneuver is, however, within the scope of the UK's unwritten constitution, which is a set of laws and conventions that have developed over centuries. And while it is common for Britons to refer to its "constitution," there is actually no written document that lays out what is — and is not — constitutional.
Johnson's move would be "unthinkable" in Germany, according to Christoph Gusy, professor of constitutional history at the University of Bielefeld. In Germany, the Bundestag, the country's equivalent of the House of Commons, "controls the government, and not the other way round."
"What Johnson is doing in the UK would turn the constitutional relationship in Germany completely upside down," Gusy told DW.
Who is sovereign?
The question of who is allowed to suspend the Bundestag is settled by Article 39, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law: "The Bundestag shall determine when its sessions shall be adjourned and resumed."
"Apparently in the UK the constitution is still in a monarchical tradition," Gusy said. "When there was a monarchy in Germany, the monarch, the Kaiser, could convene the parliament when he needed advice, or a decree, and then he could dissolve it when he didn't need it anymore."
There are, as always, good historical reasons why this is no longer the situation in Germany. "What Johnson is doing now is exactly what was abolished in Germany a hundred years ago," said Gusy.
Under the Weimar Republic, which lasted from 1918 to 1933, the Reichspräsident (President of the Reich) took over the monarch's role, and still had relatively far-reaching powers over the parliament. This meant that, in the final years of the Republic, President Paul von Hindenburg was able to relieve the chancellor of his office, appoint cabinet ministers and dissolve parliament to usher in new elections.
During that period of suspension, von Hindenburg had the power to rule by emergency decree. Ultimately, this paved the way to Hindenburg proposing Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor in 1933.
Tracing the path of German democracy
The Federal Republic of Germany's former capital still features many landmarks that witnessed the early days of post-war democracy. As the Basic Law, Germany's constitution, turns 70, DW visits these historic sites.
Image: Imago Images/C. Ohde
The former Bundesrat building
The legislative body known as the Bundesrat, or Federal Council, had its primary seat in this building in Bonn until the body moved to Berlin in 2000. Plenary sessions took place in the assembly hall of the adjoining Pedagogical Academy, where laws were drafted, discussed and voted. The Basic Law, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, also has its origins there.
Image: picture-alliance/Arco Images
A historic room
This plenary chamber in the former Bundesrat building is where the Parliamentary Council negotiated a provisional constitution for the young Federal Republic of Germany just after WWII. The council consisted of 65 members — 61 men and four women. After lengthy negotiations, the Basic Law was passed in May 1949 by a vote of 53 to 12. The Federal Council also met in this room from 1949 to 2000.
Image: Haus der Geschichte/Axel Thünker
Revisiting history
A new exhibition called "The German Basic Law," held in the former Bundesrat building, focuses on the historic hall that was central to the process of drafting the Basic Law. The exhibition organized by the Haus der Geschichte, Bonn's German history museum, includes several items from the Bonn Republic, the era from 1949 to 1990 when Germany was divided into East and West.
Image: Haus der Geschichte/Axel Thünker
The chancellor's bungalow
A one-story, simple and bright space designed to represent the values of the new Federal Republic of Germany, the bungalow served as the chancellor's residence starting in 1964. Many historic meetings also took place there, including one in June 1989 with the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. A protected monument since 2001, the building now hosts events and concerts.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
The chancellor's office
It was the control center of the Bonn Republic: the chancellor's office in the Federal Chancellery. Helmut Schmidt, chancellor from 1974-1982, is seen here leafing through files in 1976. Gerhard Schröder, in office from 1998-2005, was the last to use it has his primary office for a year before moving to Berlin in 1999. Today, the study in the former Federal Chancellery is open to visitors.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Palais Schaumburg
This palace, completed in 1860, was named after its second owner, Prince of Schaumburg-Lippe. Surrounded by a large park with historic trees, the white neoclassical-style building served from 1949-1976 as the primary seat of the Federal Chancellery; the chancellor's bungalow was also later built on the park grounds. Many treaties were signed there.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J.Schilgen
Villa Hammerschmidt
It's called the "White House of Bonn," since it looks a bit like the one in Washington, DC. The Villa Hammerschmidt is another symbol of the Bonn Republic's young democracy, as it housed the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany and his successors until Berlin's Bellevue Palace took on that role in 1994. Hammerschmidt still serves as a secondary official seat for the president.
Image: picture-alliance/O. Brandt
Federal Press Conference hall
Politicians regularly answered journalists' questions here in the historic hall of the Federal Press Conference, an association of full-time journalists. Known in German as the Bundespressekonferenz (BPK), it was created in the autumn of 1949. Foreign state representatives also made a stop here; pictured above is a press conference with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko in 1979.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Hotel Petersberg
The Hotel Petersberg is an impressive building with a special history. It was here that in November 1949, the allied high commissioners and the Federal Republic's first post-war chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, signed the Petersberg Agreement, a treaty that extended the rights of the Federal Republic. The Occupation statute was relaxed, which meant more sovereignty for the young democracy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Multhaup
Bonn's Hofgarten
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the lawn in front of today's university building was a magnificent ornamental garden; it was later used for agriculture. Today it is a space where students can relax, but the Bonn Hofgarten also witnessed turbulent times: In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, several demonstrations took place here — among other things against nuclear armament during the Cold War.
Image: picture alliance/M. C. Hurek
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No chancellor without parliamentary approval
None of that is possible under the German Basic Law, which was signed in 1949 and ensures that there is no period without a parliament in power — the old parliament sits until the new one is convened after the election.
Nor, for that matter, would it be constitutionally possible under the German system for Boris Johnson to become prime minister "simply because he is head of the party that won the last election," as Heiko Sauer, constitutional law professor at the University of Bonn, put it. In Germany, the head of government must always be approved by the Bundestag.
What's more, the German government has no say over the length of the Bundestag's term, which is also enshrined in the Basic Law: "no sooner than forty-six months and no later than forty-eight months after the electoral term begins."
There are, it is true, circumstances where the German head of state, currently President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, might be forced to call early Bundestag elections. But they are strictly defined: only when the Bundestag fails to elect a chancellor after an election, or when the government loses a confidence vote in the parliament. Even in those cases, the rule applies: The old parliament is still in power until the new one convenes.
But Gusy also pointed out that Johnson isn't the first Conservative prime minister to undermine parliamentary sovereignty in the last few years. "The sovereignty of Parliament was already violated by David Cameron's referendum [in 2016]," he said. "Such a referendum wasn't enshrined in the British constitution at all."
