Die Einstellung der Deutschen zum Föderalismus seit 1949

Ever since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded, federalism has never been seriously questioned. Yet despite what one could assume in light of Germany's lengthy federal tradition, it was also not immediately viewed by the population as a matter of course. Attitudes towards the country's federal structure were initially marked by disinterest and, consequently, a lack of knowledge and understanding. In addition, due to their experiences during the Third Reich, the Germans were for a long time unable to forge any uninhibited relationship to their own national identity and thus also not to the state. In the meantime, the federal principle is undisputedly accepted by the German population, yet this seems to be more a matter of habit and not the result of any fundamental convictions. In recent times, there are some indications that the population is increasingly leaning towards centralism. Presumably, this is the result, among other things, of the Germans' growing mobility within the country and the accompanying blurring of the cultural distinctions between the individual states. On the author: Dr. Thomas Petersen, project manager at the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach; private lecturer at the Technical University of Dresden.