The state is currently undergoing a crisis, characterized by an erosion of the rule of law and the loss of influence of nation states resulting from globalization. On the other hand, the institution of the state in the cultural and legal history of Germany has been exaggerated and idealized. Theologically, it was regarded as the divine order of creation; philosophers declared it to be a ?moral person=; the modern judicial theory of the state raised it to the status of ?state person=. This book analyses the central ideas in the interpretation of the state since the Renaissance and Reformation for present-day purposes. In the face of today=s situation of upheaval, it outlines a political ethics that emphasizes the primacy of the human person.