Huyn affair

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The Huyn affair (also Huyn case ) refers to an indiscretion affair involving Legation Councilor Hans Graf Huyn , who in autumn 1965 disclosed confidential information from the German Foreign Ministry and thus significantly burdened the formation of a cabinet in Ludwig Erhard's second government . The case preoccupied the public and parliament.

Course of events

The core and starting point of the affair were allegations Huyn made against the Bundestag member Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg ( CSU ), Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder ( CDU ), as he learned from a meeting held by Ministerialdirigent Frank on October 21, 1965 at the Foreign Office Federal Chancellor and is concealing a foreign policy that is burdening the Franco-German relationship. In a consultation pact that Schröder had allegedly concluded with Great Britain without Erhard's knowledge, it was actually only "a matter of months of deliberations on strengthening the existing German-British consultations without them being institutionalized in any way," which Erhard also knew about.

Huyn explained his behavior as an imperfect conscience. "He did not inform the CSU, but rather a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee for reasons of conscience, for the sole purpose of informing the German Prime Minister, Chancellor Erhard (...)." Journalists, however, suspected that Guttenberg and Huyn, who are friends, had operated the removal of Schröder as Foreign Minister. There was talk of "spy services" Huyns for "Strauss, Adenauer and the barons".

consequences

Huyn avoided disciplinary proceedings against himself and was released from the foreign service on October 28 at his own request. As a reason, he cited concerns about what he believed to be "the stated guidelines of government policy and, above all, the German-French treaty policy of the Foreign Office".

A timely hiring as personal advisor to Franz Josef Strauss and to the Bonn regional group of the CSU caused many misunderstandings. Die Zeit saw an "affront to the Federal Foreign Minister - and also to the Chancellor". A satire on public television that questioned what was happening was discontinued at short notice.

Strauss has been "a persona non grata for Schröder and the Atlantic wing of the CDU since the Huyn affair ".

Interpretations

Franz Josef Strauss judged Huyn's indiscretion to be “quite okay”. One cannot blame an official for informing the Federal Chancellor via a member of parliament (zu Guttenberg) of an incident that had brought the official into a serious conflict of conscience.

In a publication by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in 2001, Martin Schaad interpreted the affair as a campaign against the reappointment of Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder. He suspects a "staged contribution to the internal Union dispute between so-called Atlanticists and Gaullists ".

Martin Huber also saw the "Huyn Case" in his publication The Influence of the CSU on West German Policy from 1954–1969 with regard to relations with France and the USA as significant in relation to this dispute.

literature

  • Tim Geiger : Atlanticists against Gaullists. Foreign policy conflict and intra-party power struggle in the CDU / CSU 1958–1969 (= Studies on International History, Vol. 20). Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58586-5
  • Peter Hoeres : Foreign Policy and the Public. Mass media, opinion polls and arcane politics in German-American relations from Erhard to Brandt . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Munich 2013 ( Studies on International History , Vol. 32).
  • The conflict with Foreign Minister Gerhard Schröder and the "Huyn case", In: Martin Huber: The influence of the CSU on the West Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1954–1969 with regard to relations with France and the USA , 2007, p. 122 ff.
  • Hans Graf Huyn: The dead end. Germany's way into isolation . Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart 1966

Single receipts

  1. ^ Karl Dietrich Bracher : History of the Federal Republic of Germany , 1980, p. 183
  2. ↑ Geiger , p. 352
  3. ↑ a b c d Robert Strobel: " Always again the CSU ", In: Die Zeit , November 19, 1965 No. 47.
  4. ↑ Martin Huber: The Influence of the CSU on the West Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1954–1969 with regard to relations with France and the USA , 2007, p. 125
  5. ↑ House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany: The Federal Chancellors and their Offices , 2006, p. 68
  6. ↑ Martin Schaad: "A" Gaullist "production: On the affair of Count Huyn". Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen , Issue 8/2001, pp. 95–111