INTRODUCTION

The German Reich was founded as a constitutional monarchy in 1871. The monarchy survived until the end of World War I. The Weimar Republic was then established and it lasted until the Nazi state was established in 1933. After the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four zones occupied by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. In 1949, the three western zones joined to form the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Soviet zone formed the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR). With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall, the country was reunified on October 3, 1990, with the east joining the west. See generally Inga Markovits, Imperfect Justice: An East-West German Diary (1995), describing the shift from the Socialist system of justice to the Western system as part of the reunification. Manfred Weiss & Marlene Schmidt, Labour Law & Industrial Relations in Germany 16-17 (3rd ed. 2000) (hereinafter Labour Law in Germany).

The Basic Law (the Constitution) of the FRG (Grundgesetz) was adopted in 1949 and it establishes “a democratic, parliamentary, and federal republic.” Id. at 17. Since the 1990 unification, there are sixteen states (Lander) in the federal union governed by the Basic Law. In most areas of labor and employment law, the states have the duty to enforce federal labor law.