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The general principles of administrative procedures law have been defined in the Administrative Procedures Act (VwVfG) since 1976. Up to that time they had found expression in various legal regulations, internal administrative guidelines and in the daily practice of public authorities, or had developed through court rulings and jurisprudence as clauses of an unwritten law and as minimum requirements for an orderly administration under the rule of law; and public authorities applied them in practice as law in force.

Because Germany is a federal republic, the federal level does not have sole authority to pass legislation on administrative procedures. As far as the German states (Länder) enforce state laws, they also have authority to pass legislation on administrative procedures. Indeed, all the German states have passed administrative procedures legislation which either largely repeats the federal Administrative Procedures Act word for word or directly refers to it in its current version.