THE CONCEPT OF JUSTICE has occupied writers and artists throughout history, taking on different meanings depending on the social and historical contexts in which they lived. The more specific idea of social justice, however, was first developed in the nineteenth century as a philosophical underpinning for the workers’ rights movements responding to the mass socioeconomic changes produced by the Industrial Revolution. In the more recent past, definitions of social justice have emphasized equality and fairness for all members of society, as well as respect for differences in culture, religion, age, race, gender, and sexual orientation. In his seminal work A Theory of Justice (1971), and subsequent amendments published under the title Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (2001), the American philosopher John Rawls proposed a comprehensive theory of social justice by which “all social values—liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the social bases of self-respect—are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any, or all, of these values is to everyone's advantage” (Theory 54). Despite Germany's significant progress after the Second World War toward achieving a just, democratic society that accords with Rawls's suggestions—with the added burdens first of division and more recently of unification—social problems such as poverty, un- and underemployment, gender inequality, racism, and environmental degradation persist. These maladies continue to be made more complex by legal immigration and the influx of large numbers of political and economic refugees, the steady expansion of the European Union, and globalization. In light of these manifold factors, Germany can be ranked either as high or average with respect to social justice when compared to countries with a similarly advanced level of economic development. If the focus is placed on institutional justice—government accountability and the legal system—Germany ranks high, but if attention is shifted toward the level of inclusion and participation in its social fabric of all people residing in Germany, its ranking is attenuated.

Social justice is currently measured in a variety of ways that can lead to quite different results. For example, the comprehensive international World Justice Project's “Rule of Law Index,” completed in 2012, emphasizes government integrity, accessibility, and the rule of law. Here, Germany emerges as one of the highest-ranking among sixteen peer countries, which include those in Western Europe along with the United States and Canada.