Civil protection

Protecting the population from special dangers that cannot be averted by its own efforts is one of the most important tasks of the modern state.

According to Article 73 (1) No. 1 of the Basic Law, the Federal Government is exclusively responsible for the protection of the civilian population in the event of defense. The tasks of civil defense are regulated in the Civil Defense Act. The task of civil defense is to take non-military measures to protect the population, their homes and workplaces, vital civilian services, businesses, facilities and installations as well as cultural assets from the effects of war and to eliminate or mitigate its consequences. While civil protection is a system of hazard prevention and assistance in the event of exceptional incidents organized under federal state law, the Civil Protection Act integrates the potential provided for civil protection in the federal states in its entirety into civil protection planning. The terms "disaster control" and "civil defence" do not refer to independent organizations, but only to different emergency response tasks. The federal states and the federal government make use of all available personnel and material resources to fulfill their respective tasks on the basis of special laws.

The Civil Protection Act is currently being revised. The draft of an "Act to amend the Civil Protection Act" is currently being discussed between the federal and state governments. According to the federal government's ideas, this law should be based on the "dual-use civil defense concept", according to which the facilities provided for original federal purposes can also be used by the federal states in peacetime in order to be operational in the event of a defense situation.