The Federal Ministry of Justice ( or BMJ) is a federal ministry in Germany.

Under the federal system of Germany, individual states are most responsible for the administration of justice and the application of penalties. The Federal Ministry of Justice devotes itself to creating and changing law in the classic core areas related to Constitutional law. The Ministry also analyzes the legality and constitutionality of laws prepared by other ministries.

The German Federal Court of Justice, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (GPTO) (German: Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA)), and Patent Court all fall under its scope.

It was founded on January 1, 1877, as the Imperial Justice Office (Reichsjustizamt). After Germany became a republic in 1919, it was raised to the rank of a federal ministry as the Reichsministerium der Justiz. The ministry was formally renamed the Bundesministerium der Justiz in 1949, although in several laws originally passed before 1949 (even if the laws had been changed later) it continued to be referred to as the Reichsministerium der Justiz until 2006.
thumb|The Federal Ministry of Justice in Berlinthumb|right|Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger

List of ministers

State Secretaries for Justice, 1876–1918

• Heinrich Friedberg 1876–1879

• Hermann von Schelling 1879–1889

• Otto von Ohlschläger 1889–1891

• Robert Bosse 1891–1892

• Eduard von Hanauer 1892–1893

• Rudolf Arnold Nieberding 1893–1909

• Hermann Lisco 1909–1917

• Paul Georg Christof von Krause 1917–1918

Ministers of Justice, 1918–1945

• Wilhelm Dittmann 1918–1919

• Otto Landsberg 1919

• Eugen Schiffer 1919–1920

• Andreas Blunck 1920

• Eugen Schiffer 1921

• Gustav Radbruch 1921–1922

• Rudolf Heinze 1922–1923

• Gustav Radbruch 1923

• Erich Emminger 1923–1924

• Kurt Joël 1924–1925

• Josef Frenken 1925

• Hans Luther (acting) 1925–1926

• Wilhelm Marx 1926

• Johannes Bell 1926–1927

• Oskar Hergt 1927–1928

• Erich Koch-Weser 1928–1929

• Theodor von Guérard 1929–1930

• Johann Viktor Bredt 1930

• Kurt Joël 1930–1932

• Franz Gürtner 1932–1941

• Franz Schlegelberger (NSDAP) 1941–1942

• Otto Georg Thierack (NSDAP) 1942–1945

Ministers of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949)

• Thomas Dehler (FDP) 1949–1953

• Fritz Neumayer 1953–1956

• Hans-Joachim von Merkatz 1956–1957

• Fritz Schäffer (CSU) 1957–1961

• Wolfgang Stammberger 1961–1962

• Ewald Bucher 1962–1965

• Karl Weber 1965

• Richard Jaeger (CSU) 1965–1966

• Gustav Heinemann (SPD) 1966–1969

• Horst Ehmke (SPD) 1969

• Gerhard Jahn (SPD) 1969–1974

• Hans-Jochen Vogel (SPD) 1974–1981

• Jürgen Schmude (SPD) 1981–1982

• Hans A. Engelhard (FDP) 1982–1991

• Klaus Kinkel (FDP) 1991–1992

• Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) 1992–1995

• Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig (FDP) 1996–1998

• Herta Däubler-Gmelin (SPD) 1998–2002

• Brigitte Zypries (SPD) 2002–2009

• Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) since 2009