Wohnraumvorsorge unter dem Grundgesetz

Abstract

An objective legislative mandate to provide adequate housing for the general public through state interventions can be derived from the welfare state principle of Article 20 Para. 1 Basic Law. The legislator has great leeway in fulfilling this mandate, in particular with respect to the ways and measures chosen to intervene in the housing market in order to ensure adequate housing for the population. The development of housing law has been characterised by a shift from repressive measurements via administrative management to the provision of benefits, reflecting the respective political conceptualization of housing provision over time. While the management of housing shortages in the immediate post-war period and even after adoption of the Basic Law was accomplished by rigorous control of housing space, the 1950 First Housing Act introduced a specific public system of regulation and promotion of public housing, which determined administrative housing law for a long time. With the termination of compulsory housing administration at the end of the 1960s and the incorporation of the Tenant Protection Act into the Civil Code, only rudimentary elements of intervention remained, with the focus shifting from the initially pursued objectives of controlling the housing market to the subsidization of private individuals and expansion of social benefits. More recently, the trend has reversed. The increased emphasis today is on control and intervention in order to fulfil the constitutional mandate.