COVID-19 and Government Response in Germany. Building Resilience by Comparison of Experience

This contribution investigates the German response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis highlights the measures taken by the German government in cooperation with subnational units to mitigate the spread of infections, as well as the efforts made to stem the economic consequences of the containment measures. The emergency situation turned out to be a real stress test for the German legal system, and a serious challenge for democratic institutions. The pandemic crisis has been an accelerator of many ongoing developments in the public administration but also in the society and has made clear the need for action in several key areas in the immediate but also beyond the emergency. This contribution will address therefore some of the significant issues that have occupied the German system: the introduction of (in some cases mandatory) home office and homeschooling; the digitalization and the simplification of the administrative procedure and public procurement; the innovations in the healthcare system. Finally, the reaction of the judicial system on the containment measures and the correlated compression of fundamental rights