»The Citation Rule (Art. 19 para 1 s. 2 GG). Reconstruction of a Misunderstood Norm«: The citation rule of Article 19 para 1 sentence 2 of the German Basic Law forces the German legislator to openly name interferences with fundamental rights in laws. However, the provision has hardly played a role in the Federal Republic of Germany. This thesis attempts to reconstruct the citation rule. It examines its functions and deduces that the scope of application of the norm is significantly broader than according to the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court.