Parlamentarischer Rat

The Council was implemented by the minister-presidents of the eleven states of Germany within the three Western Allied occupation zones and inaugurated on 1 September 1948.

The primary purpose of the Council was to prepare a new constitution for Germany, thereby drawing lessons from the failure of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism, in order to re-establish a federal state based upon a stable democracy, welfare and the Rechtsstaat maxim.

To distinguish it, for instance, from the newly established People's Republics behind the Iron Curtain, the draft laid stress on a parliamentary system and references related to notions separation of powers, all bound to the constitution.

In consequence of the destructive motions in the former Reichstag, the draft implemented the constructive vote of no confidence, whereafter the Chancellor may only be removed from office by the Bundestag parliament if a prospective successor has the support of a majority.

The concept of Streitbare Demokratie also included the implementation of the Federal Constitutional Court as an separate judicial body, in accordance with the theories of Hans Kelsen.