In taking a historical-institutionlist approach, this paper looks at the development of administrative reforms in German local government which, because of the comparatively high degree of political and administrative decentralization of the Federal Republic has played a crucial role in the latter`s entire politico-administrative setting and, hence, in its institutional reforms. The paper mainly identifies three stages in the post-war development of administrative reforms. During the 'planning movement'of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Germany`s local level government and administration underwent significant and, to a considerable degree, lasting instituional changes. The 1980s, conspicuously later than in the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries, but earlier and faster than the federal and the Lander levels, germany`s local government has embarked upon dramatic changes particularly on two scores. First, in a growing number of municipalities and counties, administrative modernization was incorporated under the heading of a New Steering Model (NSM) that largely drew on the dominat international New Public Management (NPM) debate. The dynamics of the ongoing administrative reforms are marked by an 'amalgamation'of NMP/NSM and earlier (traditional) reforme concepts, Secondly, at the same time, the political instittuions of local government have undergone a significant shift as a result of the introduction of direct democratic procedures (direct election of mayors and heads of counties, binding local referenda.)The paper argues that it is this co-incidence and co-evolution of administrative and political reforms that make for the peculiary of Germany`s current modernization trajectory, distinguishing it form the Anglo-Saxon and, to a lesser degree, from the Scandinavian modernization paths