1919 · Constitutions
Weimar Constitution
Germany
Germany's first democratic constitution, with a long list of social and economic rights.
Why it matters
Its weaknesses, and its collapse in the 1930s, shaped the design of the German Basic Law of 1949.
Built on
No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.
Went on to shape
1937
Constitution of Ireland
Ireland
borrowed ideas on a directly elected president and on fundamental rights
1948
Constitution of Italy
Italy
included social rights
1949
German Basic Law (Grundgesetz)
Germany
designed to avoid the weaknesses of the Weimar system
1949 (in force 1950)
Constitution of India
India
borrowed the emergency provisions
Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 8 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.
Countries in the Legal Families Atlas
TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.
