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nex

@young_ullrich What? I've been learning German for a long time, regularly watch German TV, and never heard that. I feel like there's a joke I need explained here?

Usually it's “Freistaat”: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_sta

Even though some are freistaaten, calling the länder “states” in English sounds like a US-centric mistranslation.

19 August at 18:31 | Wall-to-wall | Open on chaos.social
7 comments
Bruno Ranieri

@nex It is just naming based on long gone historic details.

19 August at 21:28 | Open on chaos.social
nex

@yrrsinn Which “it”? (Freistaat? Kingdom? State?)

19 August at 21:29 | Open on chaos.social
Bruno Ranieri

@nex 'Freistaat' or 'Freie und Hansestadt' is history naming only.
In legal terms all Bundesländern and Stadtstaaten (Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen) are equal states of the federal republic. Sometimes 'normal' states are also called Flächenländer to make a verbal distinction to the city states, but this also has no legal relevance.

19 August at 22:06 | Open on chaos.social
nex

@yrrsinn Oh, yeah, that's what I've always assumed.

However, I just realised that I've heard “Flächenländer” before and didn't know the exact meaning; so you taught me something new after all, awesome! 😁

19 August at 22:11 | Open on chaos.social
AdeptVeritatis

@nex @young_ullrich

They are states. 16 states with a constitution (Länderverfassung) and a parliament each.
Germany doesn't have a constitution because it would be in conflict with the 16 other ones. That's why the Grundgesetz is not a constitution and Germany is a federal state.

Some of these states just have different ways of defining themselves and their role within the federation.

19 August at 21:31 | Open on social.tchncs.de
nex

@AdeptVeritatis @young_ullrich Makes sense, thanks! I said it sounds like a mistranslation because I was reminded of some misconceptions about Bundesland vs. US state. So I prefer “land”, but it's easy to confirm that you're right and I need to be more careful with the terminology.

Btw. Switzerland has Kantonsverfassungen and Austria has Landesverfassungungen and there doesn't seem to be a conflict. I don't see why the Grundgesetz wouldn't or couldn't be a constitution: bmi.bund.de/EN/topics/constitu

@AdeptVeritatis @young_ullrich Makes sense, thanks! I said it sounds like a mistranslation because I was reminded of some misconceptions about Bundesland vs. US state. So I prefer “land”, but it's easy to confirm that you're right and I need to be more careful with the terminology.

Btw. Switzerland has Kantonsverfassungen and Austria has Landesverfassungungen and there doesn't seem to be a conflict. I don't see why the Grundgesetz wouldn't or couldn't be a constitution: bmi.bund.de/EN/topics/constitu

19 August at 21:57 | Open on chaos.social
StreetDogg

@AdeptVeritatis @nex @young_ullrich The Grundgesetz absolutely is a constitution.

It's only called Grundgesetz, because it was supposed to be a temporary constitution for West Germany only, until a united Germany could replace it with a constitution made by all germans. The name was supposed to reflect that preliminary nature.

That replacement never happened, so that name stuck around, but it is and always was a constitution.

19 August at 22:33 | Open on norden.social
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