Summit in Kassel 1970

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Wilhelmshöhe Castle, the venue

The summit in Kassel on May 21, 1970 was Willy Brandt's invitation to the Erfurt summit two months earlier. Brandt's meeting with GDR Prime Minister Willi Stoph - like the historic visit to Erfurt - did not produce any concrete results.

background

Willi Stoph and Willy Brandt at the Erfurt summit

The Erfurt summit on March 19, 1970 marked 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. During the negotiations in Erfurt, a return visit to Kassel was agreed.

Preparations

First of all, the question of the venue had to be clarified. The obvious answer was that the federal capital Bonn was out of the question because the GDR had declared East Berlin to be the capital, contrary to Berlin's four-power status . Since this was not recognized by the federal government, the visit to Erfurt took place in East Berlin. In return, the GDR government did not accept a visit to Bonn. In Erfurt, Kassel was addressed as the venue. Brandt asked Chancellery Minister Horst Ehmke by telephone to ask Karl Branner, Mayor of the SPD, for approval. After this had agreed, Kassel was chosen as the venue.

East Berlin made a number of demands that the Federal Republic had to meet before the visit. This included the repeal of the law on temporary exemption from German jurisdiction . The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany regarded the GDR as part of Germany in terms of the right to sole representation . The East Germans were so from a West German legal perspective German. Correspondingly, criminal prosecution of crimes committed in the GDR by GDR citizens was possible by West German law enforcement authorities. The central registration office of the state justice administrations has been documenting state crimes in the GDR and the perpetrators since 1961. Therefore, every high-ranking GDR functionary who visited the Federal Republic of Germany had to expect to be arrested and prosecuted.

In order to make official visits by GDR representatives to the Federal Republic possible, the law on limited exemption from German jurisdiction was enacted in 1966, which enabled the Federal Government to grant GDR officials free passage . The GDR leadership rejected this special law. It was repealed on May 15, 1970. The Eighth Criminal Law Amendment Act of May 25, 1968, in Section 153b of the Criminal Code, had created the possibility for the public prosecutor to suspend the investigation and withdraw the complaint if the Federal Republic was threatened with serious disadvantages. Since the public prosecutor's offices were bound by instructions, the government had the opportunity to prevent GDR officials from being prosecuted. In April 1970 the right-wing extremist politician Gerhard Frey filed a criminal complaint against Stoph with the public prosecutor's offices in Bonn and Kassel. Prosecutors were instructed to register but not process these criminal charges. This was communicated to East Berlin by telex.

Another requirement was to be able to show the flags and coats of arms of the GDR . Showing the flag of the German Democratic Republic was prohibited in the Federal Republic by a federal / state agreement of November 4, 1959. In 1969 the federal government had already decreed that the police should not take action against violations of this prohibition. With a cabinet decision of March 12, 1970, the regulation was repealed.

The visit

On Thursday, May 21, 1970, the GDR delegation arrived at the Wilhelmshöhe station at 9:30 a.m. with a special train and was greeted by Willy Brandt. The event itself took place at Wilhelmshöhe Palace, where a press center was set up for 1,000 journalists from Germany and abroad

It almost came to a scandal when three right-wing extremists were able to penetrate the barrier region and haul down the GDR flag and tear. Brandt apologizes and promised prosecution. On June 11, the Federal Cabinet also decided to instruct Federal Justice Minister Gerhard Jahn to file a criminal complaint.

Memorial in the prince's garden, wreath-laying ceremony

There had already been extensive demonstrations from various groups beforehand. Both left and right-wing extremists tried to break through the restricted areas. Due to the security situation, the planned wreath laying on the memorial created by Hans Sautter in 1953 for the victims of National Socialism in the Fürstengarten was postponed until the evening.

The GDR delegation left the train station at around 10 p.m.

Results

No official protocol was kept. Brandt drew up a note about the talks with Stoph on May 21, 1970. Then Stoph insisted that a future treaty (the later basic treaty ) must be based on "international law" (which would correspond to recognition of the GDR) and addressed the accession of FRG and GDR in the UN as two states. Issues of trade took up a large part of the discussion, while the transport issues were only marginally discussed by Brandt. In addition, the GDR State Security managed to record the talks. The 122-page copy was found in Brandt's Stasi files after the fall of the Wall .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Minutes of the 20th cabinet meeting on March 19, 1970
  2. ^ Text of the Eighth Criminal Law Amendment Act in the Federal Gazette, p. 749
  3. ↑ Barning: Power change , pp. 289, 290.
  4. ^ Cabinet minutes of March 12, 1970
  5. ^ Cabinet minutes of June 11, 1970
  6. ↑ DzD VI / 1, p. 593, or Brandt: Berliner Ausgabe, vol. 6, p. 312, here quoted from Barning: Machtwechsel, p. 290 ff.
  7. ↑ Heribert Schwan : Spies in the Center of Power, partially digitized