The Establishment of the Federal Constitutional Court

The Basic Law did not outline details about the Court’s operation, and so it was up to legislatures to define how the powers of the Court would be wielded. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) (spearheaded by Adolf Arndt and Georg August Zinn) wanted a strong Court comprised of majority lay judges that could hear constitutional complaints. The government coalition (led by Thomas Dehler and Hans-Joachim von Merkatz), on the other hand, wanted a larger Court with professional judges and no right of direct constitutional complaints. Compromise was reached by the intervention of the upper house of the German legislature, especially with the efforts of Rudolf Katz, who mediated the two positions: Lay judges were sacrificed, yet the door was left open for constitutional complaints.