The Constitution of Berlin was adopted in 1995 by the Berlin House of Representatives and ratified by a referendum the same year. It was later amended in 2016. It contains the set of laws for the government of the state of Berlin, which is also the capital city of the nation of Germany. It sets out among other things, the basic rights of citizens and aliens, the territorial delineation, as well as the structure of government and administration of justice in the state.

Berlin lies more than 100 miles behind the Iron Curtain within the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany. It is not, however, part of that zone. It is a separate political entity for which the four major allies of the war against Nazi tyranny are jointly responsible. Its special status stems from the fact that it was the capital not only of Hitler's Third Reich but of the German nation formed in the latter half of the 19th century. In essence, the four major allies agreed to hold Berlin, as the traditional capital, in trust for a democratic and united Germany. United States, Department of State Berlin-I96I (1961) The division of Germany, and with it the bifurcation of its one-time capital - Berlin - has produced one of the foremost political contro versies of the mid-twentieth century. There has long been a "German problem," and volumes have been written concerning the history and culture of the country, the Nazi era and World War II, the Allied occupation, and recent political and economic developments in Ger many. Yet, the "Berlin problem" - as part of the broader German question - is historically of the current era.

"Suspenseful...moving...equal to any fictional thriller." —San Francisco Chronicle In August 1978, the Iron Curtain still hung heavily across Europe. To escape from oppressive East Berlin, an East German couple, Hans Detlef Alexander Tiede and Ingrid Ruske, hijacked a Polish airliner and diverted it to the American sector of West Berlin. Along with the couple, several passengers spontaneously defected to the West, and were welcomed by US officials. But within hours, Communist officials reminded the West of the anti-hijacking agreements in the Warsaw Pact, and thus the fugitives were arrested by the US State Department. Thirty-four years after World War II, the United States built a court in the middle of West Berlin, the former capital of the Third Reich, in the building that once housed the Luftwaffe, to try the hijacking couple. Former NJ district attorney, now a judge, Herbert J. Stern was appointed the "United States Judge for Berlin." What followed was a trial full of maneuvers and strategies that would put Perry Mason to shame, and answered the question: what is allowed to people seeking freedom? Judgment in Berlin, also a major motion picture starring Martin Sheen and Sean Penn, is unsurpassed as a true-life suspense story, with its vivid accounts of daring escapes, close calls, diplomatic intrigue, and dramatic courtroom confrontations. The original edition won the Freedom Foundation Award, and this updated edition includes a new introduction from author and trial judge Herbert J. Stern.

This book investigates the history of the post-war welfare state in Germany and its normative foundations, with special emphasis on constitutional issues. The author, formerly Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Social Law, Munich, and President of the Max-Planck-Society, argues that social policy – not only in Germany – is about struggles over the “social”. The “social” is an open and changing concept that reflects the modern quest for equality, voiced in semantics like justice, participation, inclusion and security. The “social” and the “social state” (the German term for welfare state) are enshrined in the German Constitution of 1949, the Grundgesetz. The book sets out the phases of welfare state development in depth. Social policies are analyzed in view of wider contexts, especially the nation state, the rule of law (Rechtsstaat), federalism and democracy. The author emphasizes the dialectics between the national character of the welfare state and its manifold international references.