Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
West Germany’s Basic Law is signed and promulgated in Bonn
View full image ↗ How was this image made?
The creative brief sent to the image model. These are instructions, not a record of what actually happened.
Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Two Communist delegates refused to sign, and Bavaria had voted the text down — while agreeing to be bound by it if the other states supplied the majority.
A public session in Bonn
On 23 May 1949 the Parliamentary Council met in public session and certified that the Basic Law had been approved by more than two-thirds of the participating West German Länder. Konrad Adenauer — its president, not yet chancellor — and the two vice-presidents, Adolph Schönfelder and Hermann Schäfer, signed and promulgated it.
Council delegates and the minister-presidents of the eleven participating Länder signed the original. The two Communist Party delegates, Max Reimann and Heinz Renner, refused, regarding the new state as entrenching Germany's division.
Bavaria's Landtag had rejected the Basic Law but accepted that it would bind Bavaria once the national threshold was met.
In force at the day's expiration
Under Article 145 the Basic Law took effect at the expiration of 23 May — during the night of 23–24 May, as the Bundestag describes it.
The Council had adopted the draft 53–12 on 8 May, at 11:55 p.m., five minutes before the anniversary of Germany's surrender ended. The three western military governors then approved it, and state parliaments ratified between 16 and 22 May.
Only four of the Council's 65 voting members were women.
A constitutional order, not yet a government
Promulgation did not install a federal government that day. The first Bundestag, president, chancellor and cabinet followed later in 1949, and West Germany remained subject to substantial Allied occupation controls.
The German Democratic Republic did not yet exist; it was proclaimed on 7 October 1949.
The drafters deliberately called the document a Basic Law rather than a constitution, to mark its provisional character and preserve the goal of reunification.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →
What the sources leave uncertain
- The date is secure, but “established on 23 May” is conventional shorthand. The Basic Law was signed and promulgated that day and took effect upon the day’s expiration, described by the Bundestag as the night of 23–24 May.