Chapter XIV: Section VI: Administration of the Realm

ARTICLE 78.

The conduct of foreign affairs pertains exclusively to the Realm.

The Lands may make treaties with foreign States on matters which fall within their own legislative competence; such treaties require the consent of the Realm.

Agreements with foreign States concerning alteration of the national frontiers shall be concluded by the Realm after the Land affected has given its consent. Frontier alterations can be effected by act of the Realm only, except in mere rectifications of frontiers in uninhabited districts.

The Realm shall take the necessary measures and make the necessary arrangements, in agreement with the Lands affected, to safeguard such interests of those Lands as may be involved in their peculiar economic connections with or in their geographical contiguity to foreign States.

ARTICLE 79.

National defence is an affair of the Realm. An act of the Realm shall uniformly regulate the military constitution of the German people, with due regard for local conditions.

ARTICLE 80.

Colonial affairs pertain exclusively to the Realm.

ARTICLE 81.

All German merchant vessels constitute a united mercantile marine.

ARTICLE 82.

Germany constitutes a Customs and Commercial Union enclosed in a common customs frontier.

The customs frontier coincides with the foreign frontier. Towards the sea the continental coast line with the islands belonging to the Realm forms the customs frontier. Deviations may be admitted where the customs frontier reaches the sea or other waters.

The territory of foreign States, wholly or partly, may be included within the Customs Union by treaty or other agreement.

Parts of the Union may be excluded under special necessity. In the case of free harbours such exclusion can be terminated only by constitutional amendment.

Territories excluded from the Union may be joined to a foreign Union by treaty or by agreement.

All products of nature, industry and art in free circulation within the Realm may be exported, imported, or transited across the frontiers of the Lands or local communities. Exceptions to this may be made by act of the Realm.

ARTICLE 83.

The authorities of the Realm shall administer all tariffs and all indirect taxes.[31]

Where the authorities of the Realm administer national taxation, provision shall be made preserving to the Lands their peculiar interests in the sphere of agriculture, commerce, manufacture, and industry.

ARTICLE 84.

The Realm shall, by legislation, regulate:--

(1) Financial administration within the Lands in so far as required in the interests of the uniform execution of the national fiscal laws;

(2) The organisation and functions of the authorities entrusted with the execution of the national fiscal laws;

(3) Accountancy between the Realm and the Lands;

(4) Re-imbursement of the costs of fiscal administration.

ARTICLE 85.

All income and expenditure of the Realm must be estimated yearly and incorporated in the Budget.

The Budget shall be passed as an act before the opening of the financial year.

Expenditure shall normally be voted for a year; in special cases it may also be voted for a longer period. In general, no clause in the Budget is admissible which extends beyond the financial year, or which does not refer to income or expenditure of the Realm or to financial administration.

The Reichstag may not increase items of expenditure proposed in the Budget or insert new items of expenditure without the consent of the Reichsrat.

Failing consent of the Reichsrat the provisions of Article 74 apply.

ARTICLE 86.

The Minister of Finance shall, with a view to discharging the responsibility of the Government, submit to the Reichstag and to the Reichsrat an account of all appropriations made out of the national revenues in the year following that in which the appropriations have been made. An act of the Realm shall provide further for the auditing of such accounts.

ARTICLE 87.

Money may be raised by loan only for extraordinary expenditure and, as a rule, only on account of expenditure for remunerative purposes.

Money may only be raised by loan or other liability assumed on behalf of the Realm with the sanction of an act of the Realm.

ARTICLE 88.

Posts, telegraphs, and telephones are exclusively the affair of the Realm. Stamps are uniform throughout the Realm.

The Government shall, with the consent of the Reichsrat, establish regulations and rates for the use of communications. With the consent of the Reichsrat it may delegate this power to the Minister of Posts.

The Government shall, with the consent of the Reichsrat, set up an Advisory Committee for Posts, Telegraphs, Telephones, and their rates.

The Realm alone has power to contract with foreign States concerning communications.[32]

ARTICLE 89.

The Realm shall acquire as its property all railways serving public communication and administer them according to a uniform system.

The rights of the Lands to buy private railways shall be transferred to the Realm on its demand.[33]

ARTICLE 90.

The Realm, in acquiring the railways, shall acquire all rights of expropriation and all sovereign prerogatives in connection with the railway system. In case of dispute the Supreme Court of Judicature shall decide the extent of such rights.

ARTICLE 91.

The Government shall, with the consent of the Reichsrat, issue all regulations concerning construction, management, and traffic of the railways. With the consent of the Reichsrat it may delegate these powers to the competent Minister.

ARTICLE 92.

The national railways shall be administered as an independent economic concern though their Budget and their accounts shall be incorporated in the national Budget and accounts; they shall be responsible for their own expenditure, including interests on, and sinking-fund for, their own debt, and they shall accumulate their own reserve-fund. A special law shall regulate the extent of the sinking-fund and of the reserve-fund, as well as the purposes to which the reserve-fund may be put.

ARTICLE 93.

The Government shall, with the consent of the Reichsrat, set up Advisory Committees for Railway Communication and Rates for the national railways.

ARTICLE 94.

When the Realm has taken over the railways serving public communication within a particular district, new railways serving public communication may not be built within such district except by the Realm or with the consent of the Realm. Should the building of new lines, or the alteration of existing lines, touch on the province of the police authorities of a Land, the railway administrative authorities must consult the local authorities before deciding.

Where the Realm has not yet taken over the administration of the railways, it may, by act of the Realm, build at its own cost, or commission others to build, with the right of expropriation, such railways as may be essential to public communication or national defence notwithstanding that those Lands, through whose territories such railways run, object; nevertheless, the sovereign prerogatives of the Lands shall not hereby be affected.

Every railway must permit another railway to effect a junction with it at the cost of the latter.

ARTICLE 95.

Railways serving purposes of public communication which are not administered by the Realm are subject to the supervision of the Realm.

Railways subject to the supervision of the Realm shall be constructed and equipped on the same principles as those laid down by the Realm. They must be maintained in good working order and must be extended to meet traffic requirements. Passenger and goods traffic must be served according to their requirements.

In regulating rates, the aim must be to maintain uniform and low rates.

ARTICLE 96.

All railways, including those not serving purposes of public communication, must accede to requirements of the Realm made in the interests of national defence.

ARTICLE 97.

The Realm shall acquire as its property and administer the waterways serving purposes of public communication.

When the Realm has taken over the waterways, new waterways serving the purposes of public communication shall not be constructed or extended except by the Realm or with its consent.

In administering, extending, or constructing waterways, the Realm shall co-operate with the Lands to safeguard the requirements and development of agriculture and of irrigation.

Every waterways administration must permit another inland waterways system to effect a junction with it at the cost of the latter. The same shall apply to the connections between waterways and railways.

In taking over the waterways the Realm acquires the right to expropriate, to fix rates, and to administer the river police system.

The undertakings of the River Development Companies in regard to the natural waterways of the Rhine, Weser, and Elbe shall be taken over by the Realm.

ARTICLE 98.

The Government shall, with the consent of the Reichsrat set up Advisory Committees to co-operate in the administration of waterways.

ARTICLE 99.

No dues may be levied over natural waterways except such as are applied to construction, plant, or other works facilitating communication. They must not exceed, in the case of State or municipal construction, the costs incurred by building and upkeep. Costs incurred by the building and upkeep of works which do not exclusively facilitate communication but are also designed for other purposes, may only be defrayed out of dues levied on shipping pro rata. Interest and sinking-fund for the capital involved are reckoned as part of the cost of construction.

This shall apply to dues levied on artificial waterways and on constructions in connection with them or in harbours.

In the administration of inland canals shipping dues may be levied on a basis of the total combined costs of a canal, a river, or of a whole waterways system.

This shall also apply to floating of constructions on the navigable waterways.

The Realm is alone entitled to levy heavier dues on foreign ships and their freights than are levied on German ships and their freights.

The Realm is entitled, by legislation, to obtain contributions from users of the waterways by other methods, in order to serve the upkeep and extension of the German waterways system.

ARTICLE 100.

An act of the Realm may levy part of the cost of upkeep and construction of inland waterways on any person benefiting, otherwise than by navigation, from the construction of dams in cases where more than one Federal State has participated in the costs of construction or where such costs have been borne by the Realm.

ARTICLE 101.

The Realm shall acquire and administer all marine signals, in particular beacons, light-ships, buoys, and land beacons. When the Realm has taken these over, new marine signals shall not be constructed or extended except by the Realm or with its consent.