The book aims at outlining key political, functional, administrative and financial features of Germany’s local government system and at placing them in a (European) comparative perspective. In pursuing an “institutionalist” approach it focuses on discussing whether, how and why the position and activities of local government in the intergovernmental (“multi-level”) setting have changed vis-à-vis multiple challenges and crises. Among the latter tasks such as coping with the energy crisis, the influx of asylum seekers and refugees, the digitization of local administration and the Covid19 pandemic loom large.

Ranking among the functionally and politically strongest among European countries Germany’s local government plays an important role in the German federal system and beyond in the European Union. Over the years it has proved a remarkable problem solving and innovative capacity. Hence, the German case may attract the attention of a European and international audience interested in local government and governance and practices.

Hellmut Wollmann born in 1936. In 1970-71 Kennedy Memorial Fellow at Harvard University. Professor of Public Administration at the Free University of Berlin (1974 to 1993) and at Humboldt University of Berlin (1993-2003). Chairman (1980-1996) of the IPSA Research Committee on the Comparative Study of Local Politics and Government. Guest professorships among others in Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris, Florence and Gothenburg). Main fields of research and publications on comparative government and public administration with a focus on subnational levels. Among recent publications: Public and Social Services in Europe (co-edited with I. Kopric and G. Marcou) Palgrave 2016, Introduction to Comparative Public Administration (co-authored with S. Kuhlmann and R. Reiter), 3rd ed., Edward Elgar 2024/25.