Erfurt summit
The Erfurt summit on March 19, 1970 marks the beginning of the German-German rapprochement within the framework of the new Ostpolitik , which began with the SPD-FDP federal government under Willy Brandt in autumn 1969. While the negotiations remained without a concrete result, the meaning of the meeting is symbolic. Two months later, Willi Stoph's return visit to the West took place at the 1970 summit in Kassel .
prehistory
The two German states have had no diplomatic relations with one another since their foundation. In the west, the Hallstein Doctrine was valid with sole representation . German-German relations were initially expanded in the economic and social field.
Process and meaning
The Erfurt summit was the first German-German meeting at the level of the heads of government. Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt met for official talks with the GDR Prime Minister Willi Stoph in Erfurt.
Erfurt was set as the meeting point for the summit, partly because of mutual reservations regarding status law. The GDR Foreign Ministry had previously proposed the House of Ministries in East Berlin. The fact that the Chancellor would land via West Berlin by train or there by plane was not desired. His plane should head for the East Berlin Schönefeld Airport directly. So Berlin was rejected and Erfurt was chosen as the meeting point.
The meeting stands for the gradual end of the Cold War . The symbolic value of “Erfurt” consists on the one hand in the political event itself, which is to be classified in the context of social democratic or social liberal Ostpolitik and global détente . But it was also the emotional and dramatic circumstances of the meeting that caused a stir internationally. Around 500 journalists from 42 countries had been accredited. With the chant "Willy Brandt to the window!" Shouted thousands of the morning of March 19, 1970 GDR citizens Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany to the window of the hotel Erfurt Hof . When the politician showed himself, the people of Erfurt cheered him. Previously, despite the police and Stasi barriers, the crowd had stormed the station forecourt. Brandt wrote in his memoirs two decades later: “The day of Erfurt. Was there anyone in my life who would have been more emotionally charged? "
The further negotiations after the Erfurt meeting, which did not yet produce any concrete results, were followed by several German-German agreements (including the 1972 Basic Agreement ). The permanent representations were set up . The Federal Republic and the GDR were admitted to the UN in 1973 and co-signed the CSCE Final Act in 1975.
Movie
- Rainer Erices and Jan Schönfelder (2010): Willy Brandt at the window! MDR.
literature
- Steffen Raßloff (ed.): "Willy Brandt on the window!" - The Erfurt summit in 1970 and the history of the "Erfurter Hof" (writings of the Erfurt Association for the History and Antiquity , Vol. 6). Glaux Verlag, Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-940265-05-0 .
- Steffen Raßloff: The Erfurt summit in 1970 . Erfurt 2005 ( State Center for Civic Education Thuringia (PDF; 195 kB) ); updated reprint: Willy Brandt at the window! The Erfurt summit in 1970 . Erfurt 2009 (publication by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Thuringia).
- Jan Schönfelder, Rainer Erices: Willy Brandt in Erfurt. The first German-German summit in 1970. Christoph-Links-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-568-3 .
Web links
- Erfurt summit on erfurt-web
- BStU , topic: Code name "Konfrontation": First German-German meeting: Willy Brandt meets Willi Stoph in Erfurt
Individual evidence
- ↑ DER SPIEGEL 12/1970, page 28, Chance at Tango
- ^ Rainer Erices in DIE ZEIT from March 19, 2010: 1970: Willy Brandt in Erfurt: History of a German-German rapprochement
- ↑ DER SPIEGEL 12/1970, No Fisimatents , pp. 27, 28
- ^ SPIEGEL ONLINE, One day on March 19, 2010: Willy Brandt in Erfurt politics from the hotel window
- ↑ Willy Brandt: Memories. Ullstein, Frankfurt 1994