The Federal Republic of Germany lies at the heart of Europe and is surrounded by nine neighbouring states. The territory covers around 357,000 km2 and stretches from the North and Baltic Seas in the north to the Alps in the south. Germany has 84.24 million inhabitants, making it the most populous state in the European Union (EU). Just less than 24 million inhabitants have a migrant background, 11.6 million of these do not have German citizenship and 12,2 million have German citizenship. The national and official language is German. Germany acceded to the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages of the Council of Europe in 1998 and applies this treaty to Danish, North Frisian, Sater Frisian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, the Romani language of the German Sinti and Roma and the regional language Low German. The comprehensive regulations of the Language Charter are intended to ensure the preservation of these languages and support their use in the private and public spheres.
The Federal Republic of Germany has been a democratic and social federation since 1949. The Länder formed in 1946 in the west built on the federalism of the German Empire (1871-1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919-33) in constitutional terms. The Grundgesetz of 1949 (Basic Law) stipulates that the traditional federal order be continued in the areas of education, science and culture. Thus, the primary responsibility for legislation and administration in the above-mentioned areas, so-called cultural sovereignty (Kulturhoheit), rests with the Länder. The federalist principle is an acknowledgement of the regional structure which has evolved through Germany's history and is an element in the division of power and also, in a democratic state, a guarantee of diversity, competition and community-based politics. In addition to the federal principle, the education system in the Federal Republic of Germany is characterised by ideological and social pluralism.
A decisive factor in the development of the German education system in a similar direction as from 1945 on was the cooperation of the Länder in the Kultusministerkonferenz, or Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany, which was founded in 1948. The Unification Treaty of 1990 (Einigungsvertrag) between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic required the five Länder in eastern Germany to lay the legislative foundations for the reorganisation of education by 30 June 1991. Under the Establishment of Länder Act (Ländereinführungsgesetz) of July 1990, the five Länder in eastern Germany set up their own Ministries of Education, Cultural Affairs and Science which joined the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in December 1990 with a view to introducing a common and comparable basic structure in the education system by way of the self-coordination of the Länder in the Federal Republic.