Hallstein Doctrine

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walter Hallstein in 1969 while receiving the Robert Schuman Prize

The Hallstein Doctrine was a foreign policy doctrine (political guideline) of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1955 to 1969. It stated that the establishment of diplomatic relations with the German Democratic Republic (GDR) by third countries must be viewed as an “unfriendly act” towards the Federal Republic. Any countermeasures by the Federal Republic were not specified. This enabled a wide range of economic sanctions to the breaking of diplomatic relations with the state concerned. The aim was to isolate the GDR in terms of foreign policy.

The social-liberal coalition under Willy Brandt gave up the Hallstein Doctrine. It was becoming more and more difficult to handle and also restricted German foreign policy .

The basis of the doctrine was the claim to sole representation , i.e. H. the view that the Federal Republic is the only legitimate representation of the German people . In contrast, neither the German People's Congress nor the government in the real socialist GDR were democratically legitimized . The fact that only the Federal Republic of Germany was allowed to represent Germans internationally and that there was only one German nationality was derived from the preamble of the Basic Law at the time .

The doctrine was named after Walter Hallstein ( CDU ), State Secretary in the Foreign Office from 1951 to 1958. Hallstein himself was not the author. Rather, it goes back to a formulation by Wilhelm Grewes of September 23, 1955, international lawyer and head of the political department in the Foreign Ministry.

history

States that recognized the GDR until 1970
Konrad Adenauer in Moscow in 1955
Walter Ulbricht in Egypt in 1965
The flags of both German states in 1973 in front of the UN headquarters in New York

Under Adenauer

In September 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union during Konrad Adenauer 's trip to Moscow ; previously, contact with the victorious eastern power had always been made via the allied western powers. The Federal Republic actually did not want to recognize the so-called people 's democracies (with their relations with the GDR), but declared the Soviet Union an exception because of their importance. With a view to the two People's Republics of Poland and Hungary , the Hallstein Doctrine was formulated and first publicly announced in December of the same year at an ambassadors conference in Bonn : The establishment or maintenance of diplomatic relations with the GDR was considered an unfriendly act by the Federal Republic of Germany (acte peu amical ) and usually answered by breaking off or not establishing diplomatic relations. According to the claim to sole representation only the Federal Republic have the democratic legitimacy inherent in foreign countries to speak for the German people.

The model for the doctrine was the refusal of the United States of America to establish diplomatic contacts with these states in the first few years after the establishment of communism in the Soviet Union and China , as well as the actions of the governments in the also divided states of Korea and Vietnam . The counterpart to the Hallstein Doctrine on the part of the GDR was the so-called Ulbricht Doctrine .

The Hallstein Doctrine was controversial in West German politics mainly because there were concerns that states that had already diplomatically recognized the GDR might in turn refuse contact with the Federal Republic, which could lead to West German isolation. When a cautious rapprochement with Poland was discussed in Bonn at the beginning of 1956, the Hallstein Doctrine also came under fire. When the GDR opened an office in Cairo in the winter of 1957 that was supposed to be responsible for diplomatic contact with the entire Arab region, the Federal Republic did not apply the Hallstein Doctrine.

Two German delegations took part in the Geneva Foreign Ministers' Conference of the victorious powers (mid-1959). Two more tables had been moved to the Round Table of the Four Powers , one near the Soviet delegation and the other near the US delegation.

In fact, diplomatic relations were only broken off twice: In the case of the non-aligned but socialist Yugoslavia ruled in 1957. The German government broke off diplomatic contact with Yugoslavia, even against protests from the CDU. Contractually agreed payments were continued and a consulate general was left in the country. On January 14, 1963, diplomatic contacts with Fidel Castro's socialist Cuba were broken off after this state had recognized the GDR.

Conversely, the Federal Republic experienced something similar when it recognized Israel in 1965 . Nasser had invited Walter Ulbricht to Cairo and received him with great honors like a head of state . Nasser said that he unfortunately could not recognize the GDR, but the Federal Republic of Germany stopped providing economic aid to Egypt and established diplomatic relations with Israel. As a result, nine Arab states broke off relations with West Germany , but did not recognize the GDR - as had been feared.

Initially, only GDR trade delegations were set up in some countries in the region. A wave of recognition of the GDR in the Arab world did not come about until 1969, after East Berlin had taken a clear position against Israel since the Middle East conflict in 1967: Iraq , where the Ba'ath party came to power again in 1968, was the first Arab country to take a diplomatic stand Relations with the GDR.

In addition, a kind of race developed between the two German states, in which each tried to establish diplomatic relations with many states first, in order to outdo the other. In most cases, this involved economic and development policy concessions. The main goals of this approach were the countries of the Third World , many of which went from colonies to independent states during this period (see decolonization ). A particularly striking example of this race was the so-called Guinea crisis : when the African country Guinea gained independence in 1958, both German states tried to place an ambassador there. The GDR set up a commercial agency, and shortly afterwards the German ambassador began work in Guinea. In 1960, however, Guinea sent an ambassador to the GDR. The federal government immediately withdrew its ambassador from Guinea, whereupon the Guinean government declared that it had never sent an ambassador to East Berlin. Relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Guinea were restored, the GDR was damaged in terms of foreign policy. In 1964, the short-lived People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba was the first African state to diplomatically recognize the GDR.

The Hallstein Doctrine had similar effects at various international events, for example at sports competitions, at which German diplomats tried to prevent the GDR flag from being raised and the GDR anthem being played. At the ice hockey world championship in Geneva in March 1961 , on the advice of the Foreign Office , the team of the Federal Republic of Germany did not play against the GDR, because otherwise they would have had to pay homage to the GDR's anthem and flag. The game was rated 5: 0 in favor of the GDR and the team from the Federal Republic ended up in the last place in their group. At the instigation of the federal government, until the mid-1960s there were several agreements with NATO partner states, GDR athletes and sports officials not to issue entry visas , so that they were excluded from many international sporting events.

According to Adenauer

In October 1963 the Adenauer era ended with the resignation of Konrad Adenauer ; the Adenauer V cabinet was followed by the Erhard I cabinet , which continued the coalition with the FDP . This remained unchanged even after the federal election in 1965 ( Erhard II cabinet ). He resigned on November 30, 1966. Kurt Georg Kiesinger formed a grand coalition ( Kiesinger cabinet ); After the Bundestag election in 1969 , the SPD provided Willy Brandt as the Federal Chancellor for the first time .

In the first half of the 1960s (the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 ) a new orientation in Ostpolitik began . The Hallstein Doctrine was applied increasingly inconsistently under Erhard and Kiesinger: According to the birth defect theory , it was emphasized that the satellite states of the Soviet Union did not enter into relations with the GDR voluntarily, but under Soviet pressure; in 1967, for example, a commercial agency was set up in Romania . Since 1967 (exchange of ambassadors with Romania in 1967, resumption of diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia in January 1968), the Hallstein Doctrine was gradually dismantled as part of the “new Ostpolitik” until 1969 and finally abandoned after 1970. In autumn 1969 the new Federal Chancellor Brandt coined a groundbreaking formula by speaking of "two states of one nation in Germany".

Finally, the treaty on the foundations of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic (Basic Treaty ) of December 1972 recognized the existence of the other German state and stipulated that neither of the two German states would represent the other internationally or on its behalf could act. From then on, non-socialist countries went from de facto recognition of the GDR to de jure recognition.

But even after the relaxation of German-German relations and the admission of both states to the UN on September 18, 1973, the prevailing view was that the Federal Republic of Germany was the sole legal representative of the entire German people because it was identical to the German under international law Reich was. In addition, there was the democratic legitimation of the federal government.

In Chile , during the 1969/70 election campaign , Salvador Allende , the presidential candidate of the socialist electoral alliance Unidad Popular , announced that he or Chile would diplomatically recognize the GDR, Cuba, the PR China , North Vietnam and North Korea in the event of an election victory . He won the election on September 4, 1970; in April 1971 the GDR was recognized. At that time, Walter Ulbricht was a strong man in the GDR ; he, and after him Erich Honecker, believed that the more countries recognized the GDR, the more stable the division of Germany and the rule of the SED would be . The federal government ( Cabinet Brandt I ) called back its ambassador Horst Osterheld "for consultations". Federal Foreign Minister Walter Scheel suggested “not to show unnecessary hardship” towards Chile. The Hallstein Doctrine and the Federal Republic's claim to sole representation for all of Germany were evidently seen as obstacles to the policy of détente .

One China Policy

The People's Republic of China continues to pursue a similarly oriented policy with regard to the Republic of China (Taiwan) , which is regarded as a province of China ( one-China policy ). Since most states want to avoid the severance of diplomatic relations by the People's Republic of China, only a few states recognize Taiwan internationally, although it has all the other attributes of an independent state (“stabilized de facto regime ”).

See also

literature

  • Rüdiger M. Booz: Hall Stone Age. German foreign policy 1955–1972. Bouvier, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-416-02526-1 .
  • William Glenn Gray: Germany's Cold War. The Global Campaign to Isolate East Germany, 1949-1969. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill 2003, ISBN 978-0-8078-2758-1 .
  • Werner Kilian: The Hallstein Doctrine. The diplomatic war between the FRG and the GDR 1955–1973, from the files of the two German foreign ministries. In: Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungen  7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-428-10371-3 .
  • Alexander Troche: Ulbricht and the Third World. East Berlin's "fight" against the Bonn "sole agency presumption". Palm and Enke, Erlangen 1996, ISBN 3-7896-0352-X .
  • Siegfried Prokop : Coffin nail for the Hallstein Doctrine . In: Mitteilungen Förderkreis Archives and Libraries on the History of the Labor Movement , No. 56 September 2019, ISSN  1869-3709 , pp. 17-22.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Manfred Overesch : GDR: the German mother country? , Die Zeit , No. 20, May 13, 1994.
  2. ↑ Introduction (introductory text) about the GDR constitution from 1949 on 1000dokumente.de .
  3. ↑ Background information 1955: The Hallstein Doctrine ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), information from Hanns Jürgen Küsters ( Federal Archives ).
  4. ↑ Der Spiegel No. 22/1959: Germans at no table
  5. ↑ Germany and Berlin question, Geneva Foreign Ministers Conference , Federal Archives.
  6. ^ Gunter Holzweißig: Diplomacy in a tracksuit. Oldenbourg, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-486-50971-3 , p. 37.
  7. ↑ Rainer Blasius : Strong gesture in transition. When the Hallstein Doctrine was first applied, no one knew its name. ( Memento from January 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , No. 243 from October 19, 2007, p. 12.
  8. ↑ Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte Vol. 61, Issue 4, pp. 513–549 (October 2013); Georg J. Dufner: Chile as a partner, example and touchstone. doi : 10.1515 / vfzg.2013.0023 .
  9. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : The GDR did the best business with Pinochet , Die Welt from September 5, 2013.
  10. ^ Friedrich Paul Heller : The Bonn government, corporate interests and the Pinochet regime in Chile , portal amerika21.de , November 3, 2013.