Supreme agreements

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In the Supreme Agreement , the countries of the United Economic Area of the American and British occupation zones tried to regulate joint tasks in the field of geology across national borders. The name is derived from Frankfurt am Main - Höchst , where the agreements were made.

These have nothing to do with the Supreme Agreement of May 30, 1964, which is sometimes referred to as the Supreme Agreement .

Research funding between centralism and federalism

The Höchst agreements are - like the state agreement on the establishment of a German research university in Berlin-Dahlem and the financing of German research institutes - the forerunners of the state agreement of the federal states of the Federal Republic of Germany on the financing of scientific research institutions , which was passed on March 31, 1949 and which goes by the name of Königsteiner State agreement has become known. Both predecessor agreements were about reorganizing parts of the research landscape in the post-war period . The Königstein Agreement was the preliminary conclusion of this process.

In the years 1945 to 1947 there were several attempts to find an all-German solution or a solution only affecting the western zones for the successor to the Reich Office for Soil Research . They had all failed, the all-German as well as the bizonal. Above all the southern German states resisted, on the one hand out of fear of an overpowering central office, but on the other hand in concern about the loss of their own responsibilities and influence. They insisted on independent state geological institutes .

The initiative then goes back to Alfred Bentz that the state institutions should not be subordinated to a central facility, but that an office for special investigation methods and complex measurements should be placed alongside them. The Board of Directors for Economy , which was then based in Minden , took up this proposal and passed the following resolution on February 20, 1947:

"The chairman of the administrative council for economy (VRW) is asked to set up a committee of the heads of the geological state institutes chaired by Professor Dr. Bentz to convene, who should work out proposals for the scientific summary of the geological state institutes and present them to the VRW. "

The committee called for by the VRW met on March 12th and 13th, 1947 in Wiesbaden and initially only adopted rules of procedure for an "Association of German geological state institutes in the American and British occupation areas" and made a decision in principle on a joint research center for research that would allow of a single country. It was not until a year later that there was agreement on the tasks to be solved together: " Geophysics , petroleum geology , micropalaeontology , pollen analysis , coal geology , sediment petrography , publications and exchange of scientific papers, library and archival management and the promotion of international cooperation."

The way was clear for the signed in Frankfurt-Hoechst on June 1, 1948 Highest agreements by which the task areas above a newly created Geological Research Institute were transferred. In point 2 of the highest agreements it says:

“These joint tasks are assigned to the German Research Institute of the Geological State Offices of the united economic area, whose work is controlled by the Directors' Conference of the Geological State Offices and which is formed from the corresponding departments of the Geological Office already existing in Hanover. The z. The library currently located in Wiesbaden, the archives and the sales office of the former Reich Office for Soil Research will continue to be looked after by the Hessian State Office for Soil Research in Wiesbaden until further notice. "

Point 3 of the agreements expressly states that "the transfer of joint tasks to the German Geological Research Institute [..] does not affect the independence of the regional geological offices". The question of financing (point 5 of the agreements ) remains relatively vague: "The funds required to solve the aforementioned joint tasks are to be raised by a grant from the administration for the economy of the united economic area." Direct financing by the federal states is not intended .

Now there was an agreement, but apparently little interest in filling it with life: “The establishment of a research institute supported by the Administration for Economy of the United Economic Area in Frankfurt (formerly Minden) was opposed to the southern German states; so they feared z. B. Interventions in their cultural-political decisions by the Frankfurt headquarters. "

This hanging game only ended with the adoption of the Königstein State Agreement at the end of March 1949. In its annexes, funding for the “Reichsamt für Bodenforschung” and from the accounting year 1950 for the “Amt für Bodenforschung” in Hanover is stipulated The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) emerged from some detours .

The Höchst agreements have thus only outlined a path for future geological research in Germany without having prepared the material foundation for this path themselves.

“The efforts to set up a geological office for the Federal Republic of Germany had failed. What remained was a supraregional solution for carrying out geoscientific joint tasks. In addition, each geological state office took its special development. "

literature

  • Dieter Pfeiffer: Historical development from the Höchst Agreements to the Blue List , in: Albrech Hahn (Hg.): 40 years of geoscientific joint tasks in the Lower Saxony State Office for Soil Research , Geological Yearbook, Series A, General and regional geology, Federal Republic of Germany and neighboring areas, tectonics, Stratigraphie, Paläontologie, Heft 109, Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1988, pp. 9-38. In addition to the text of the Höchst Agreements , the article also includes other transnational documents that were decisive for research policy in Germany up to the 1980s.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Dieter Pfeiffer: Historical Development from the Highest Agreements to the Blue List , p. 10
  2. ↑ Dieter Pfeiffer: Historical development from the highest agreements to the Blue List , p. 11
  3. ↑ Höchst Agreements , quoted from Dieter Pfeiffer: Historical development from the Höchst Agreements to the Blue List , p. 16
  4. ↑ Dieter Pfeiffer: Historical development from the highest agreements to the Blue List , p. 11
  5. ^ History of the BGR and its predecessor organizations - a brief overview
  6. ↑ Dieter Pfeiffer: Historical development from the highest agreements to the Blue List , p. 11