Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt

According to article 73 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Federal Government enacts laws concerning weights and measures and the determination of the time. The Bundesrat (Federal Council) must consent to all legal regulations relating to metrology and verification. According to the Constitution, the enforcement of the federal laws rests with the federal states.

It is PTB's task to realize and disseminate the legal units, to approve measuring instrument types, to test standard instruments for the verification authorities and the state-approved test laboratories, and to give advice to the verification authorities and test laboratories. PTB is the federal authority responsible for legal metrology; it is not, however, a "higher verification office". Verifications of measuring instruments are only carried out by the verification authorities of the 16 federal states. However, PTB and the verification authorities cooperate closely, for example, in the annual "Plenary Assembly for Verification Matters" and in the "Legal Metrology" Committee of the Federal Government and the federal states in which technical and legal recommendations are drawn up to adjust the legal regulations to the state of the art.