Freedom of profession and protection of private property in the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

Abstract

In this article, on the example of the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, the correlation between the freedom of profession and the constitutional guarantee of private property in Germany will be considered. As an example, one of the early cases of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany called “District Chimney Sweeper”, which was decided on April 30, 1952, is taken. In this case, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany came to the conclusion that the “enterprise” of a chimney sweep is a craft in which the private law aspects of economic life completely fade into the background, and in which moments of strict public law regulation certainly dominate. This circumstance does not allow us to bring the concept of “guaranteed right to engage in a craft” under “property” in the sense of Article 14 of the German Basic Law of 1949.