75 years ago, the Parliamentary Council began its deliberations in Bonn's Museum Koenig. Karl Arnold, the then Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, welcomed the guests to Museum Koenig with the words:
Karl ArnoldWe are starting this work with the intention and the firm will to erect a building that will ultimately be a good house for all Germans.
After nine months of work in the Parliamentary Council, Germany finally adopted a new constitution. The members of the Parliamentary Council adopted the draft constitution on May 8. Konrad Adenauer, President of the Parliamentary Council, signed the Basic Law in the gymnasium of the Pedagogical Academy on May 23, 1949. It was the last time that the Parliamentary Council met in Bonn. In addition to the eleven minister presidents and the presidents of the state parliaments, representatives of the Allied occupying powers and numerous guests of honor were also present.
The proclamation of the Basic Law was more of a ceremony than a plenary session: music by Georg Friedrich Händel was played and numerous radio stations broadcast the event. At the end of May 23 - one day later - the Basic Law came into force.
President Konrad Adenauer said on May 23, 1949:
"Today, May 23, 1949, marks the beginning of a new chapter in the eventful history of our nation: today, following the signing and promulgation of the Basic Law, the Federal Republic of Germany will enter history. We are all aware of what this means. Anyone who has consciously experienced the years since 1933, who has witnessed the complete collapse in 1945, who has consciously experienced how all state power since 1945 has been taken over by the Allies, will think with a moved heart that today, with the passing of this day, the new Germany will come into being."
The mothers and fathers of the Basic Law created a text that is still significant today. The very beginning makes it unmistakably clear: "Human dignity is inviolable".