this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Joking, of course! What an exceptionally noble and admirable way to begin drafting a constitution.

πŸ‡©πŸ‡ͺ β™₯ πŸ‡²πŸ‡½

Translation"Human dignity is inviolable. Article 1 of the Basic Law (GG)"

"Die WΓΌrde des Menschen ist unantastbar" is the first sentence of Article 1 of the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz, GG).

Disclosure: Alt text & translation were AI-generated.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 days ago

The point is: that goes also for criminals, and prisoners. And yes, it should go for refugees too, even brown skinned ones. Oh, and people on social security. And disabled people.

We did a lot of violating human dignity in the past, that's the reason it's the first article of the constitution. It's a good principle. One that many other constitutions don't have. We can be proud about that.

However I don't think many people grasp the implications of it not being uphold, unless they become a victim themselves, and I believe that a large part of the population does not care or will be favorable towards dignity-violations, especially against the most heinous of criminals, and minorities.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Official translation is "Human dignity shall be inviolable", but yeah, same thing.

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html#p0020

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

weird that the official translation uses shall be and not is. Because 'shall be' is a far weaker phrasing. If it 'is' inviolable than that is a spoken fact. Shall be is more of a guideline or ideal.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's more accurate though. Because human dignity is violated.

Also, if it was unviolable there would be no point in making laws to protect it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's more accurate to real life, yes.

"Shall be inviolable" would translate to: Sollte unantastbar sein

Which is distinctly different from "Ist unantastbar"

So it's not the most accurate translation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Yes, to real life, this is what I intended to mean, sorry.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm guessing, the translators just looked at typical English Legalese and emulated that style (even though the German text also uses the stronger "is"). For example, the US constitution is also written with "shall be": https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/

Ultimately, no matter how you formulate it, constitutions do still need to be upheld by people. Both, their continued existence, but also enforcement.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

@Ephera @lenuup
Pretty sure shall is a requirement in legal terms. Juts like
"In this document, the following verbal forms are used:Β 
β€” β€œshall” indicates a requirement;Β "
https://www.iso.org/ISO-house-style.html