Foreign affairs at the Chancellery (1950–1951) (1950), seat of the
Federal Chancellery in 1950, where Hallstein worked before the
German Foreign Office was formed|alt=Landscape picture of the Palais Schaumburg Against the background of the
Second World War, a conflict that had caused massive destruction and left the continent split in two by the
Iron Curtain, there were calls for increased cooperation in Europe. The
French foreign minister,
Robert Schuman, put forward a plan, originating from
Jean Monnet, for a European Coal and Steel Community that would unify control of German and French coal and steel production, and talks were started with this aim. Germany had still not regained its sovereignty following defeat in World War II, and was represented internationally by the
Allied High Commission. There was no German foreign office and, for a time, foreign affairs were dealt with by the
Chancellery.
Konrad Adenauer, the German
Chancellor, called Hallstein to Bonn, at the suggestion of
Wilhelm Röpke, and in June 1950 he appointed him to head the German delegation at the
Schuman Plan negotiations in Paris, which were to lead to the formation of the
European Coal and Steel Community.
Jean Monnet, the leader of the French delegation, and Hallstein drew up the
Schuman Plan, which was the basis for the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), established by the
Treaty of Paris in 1951. The ECSC was to develop into the
European Economic Community, and later the
European Union. In August 1950, to general surprise, Hallstein was made head of the Office of Foreign Affairs ('
) at the Federal Chancellery ('). At this time, little was known about Hallstein, except that he had not been a member of the
Nazi Party and that he was on good terms with US officials.
State Secretary at the Foreign Office (1951–1958) building |alt=Landscape photograph of the 1955 German Foreign Office building, with trees in the foreground : Walter Hallstein (left) with
Konrad Adenauer (centre) and Ambassador
Herbert Blankenhorn (right) at the NATO Conference in
Paris in 1954. |alt=Walter Hallstein, Konrad Adenauer and Herbert Blankenhorn sitting at a conference table in the
Bundestag on 25 February 1955 |alt=Walter Hallstein sitting with Konrad Adenauer in the Bundestag; Karl Mommer speaking Following a change in the
Occupation Statute, the
German Foreign Office was re-created in March 1951, but the post of
Foreign Minister was filled by Adenauer himself. On 2 April 1951, Hallstein was made the leading civil servant at the newly created Foreign Office. Foreign policy continued to be managed by Adenauer himself with his group of intimates, including Hallstein, Blankenhorn and others. In many respects, Hallstein was the West German Foreign Minister in all but name, but there was a growing awareness that a separate officeholder was needed. Adenauer is said to have considered Hallstein for the position, even though he was not a member of a political party. Hallstein also played an important part in promoting West Germany's goals of regaining
sovereignty and creating a
European Defence Community (EDC), of which West Germany would be a member. Negotiations at first resulted in two international agreements: • On 26 May 1952, the
Treaty of Bonn was signed by the United States, United Kingdom, France, and West Germany; on
ratification, it would largely restore sovereignty to the Federal Republic of Germany (
de facto West Germany, but not including
West Berlin, which retained a special status). • On 27 May 1952, the
Treaty of Paris was signed by the United States, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and West Germany; on ratification, it would have established the
European Defence Community (EDC). However, the Treaty of Paris failed to obtain the necessary approval of the
French Parliament. Instead, a solution involving the
Western European Union (WEU) was agreed upon, and West Germany was to become a member of
NATO. The efforts to resolve the issues culminated, in 1954, in
a series of conferences in London and Paris. The German side was represented by Adenauer, the German chancellor, together with the top civil servants at the German Foreign Office: Hallstein, his colleague Blankenhorn, and his deputy, Grewe. Hallstein helped negotiate various treaties at the London
Nine-Power Conference from 23 September to 3 October 1954; they were finalized at the Paris conference from 20 to 23 October 1954. The conferences in Paris included a meeting of the parties to the Nine-Power Conference in London (20 October), a meeting of the seven
WEU members (20 October), a meeting of the
Four Powers to end the occupation of Germany (21–22 October), and a meeting of all fourteen
NATO members to approve Germany's membership. After the ratification of the
Paris Accords on 5 May 1955, the
General Treaty (
Deutschlandvertrag), which largely restored (West) German sovereignty, took full effect; the Federal Republic of Germany became a member of NATO. Once the major foreign policy objectives were in hand, Hallstein set about restoring Germany's
diplomatic service and re-organizing the Foreign Office, based on the findings of the Maltzan Report, a report commissioned by Hallstein on 26 June 1952 and produced a month later by
Vollrath Freiherr von Maltzan, a former diplomat, at that time on loan from the Ministry of Economics. There was criticism of a lack of information and consultation and an atmosphere of secrecy, possibly resulting from Adenauer's distrust of the old hands at the Foreign Office, the
Wilhelmstraße veterans, as well as the desire to fill top jobs with outsiders not tainted by having served as diplomats under the
Nazis. There were suggestions of a disconnect between the leadership (consisting of Adenauer and a small group of close advisers, including Hallstein and Blankenhorn) on the one hand and the division leaders at the Foreign Office and the
diplomatic missions on the other. In particular, Hallstein was also criticised in the press after the European Defence Community was rejected by the
French National Assembly, as had been predicted by the German diplomatic mission in Paris. was appointed
Foreign Minister, Walter Hallstein retained his very influential status at the
Foreign Office.|alt=Portrait photograph of Heinrich von Brentano On 6 June 1955, Adenauer, who had until then been Foreign Minister as well as Chancellor, appointed
Heinrich von Brentano foreign minister and there was a reshuffling of responsibilities, but Hallstein retained the trust of Adenauer and continued to attend cabinet meetings.
Herbert Blankenhorn, who until then been the head of the Political Department of the Foreign Office, became the German
Permanent Representative to NATO in Paris;
Wilhelm Grewe took over the Political Department under Hallstein and was made Hallstein's deputy. Hallstein was involved in discussions with the French concerning the return of the coal-rich
Saar to Germany. In October 1955 there was a
referendum held to decide whether the Saar would remain separate from Germany or be re-integrated into Germany, following which it was agreed with France that there would be political integration into the Federal Republic of Germany by 1 January 1957 and economic integration by 1 January 1960. In September 1956, Hallstein announced that France had agreed to hand over control of the Saar to Germany; on 27 October 1956, the
Saar Treaty was signed.
Hallstein Doctrine In 1955, Germany had in large measure regained its sovereignty and become integrated into western defence-organizations, the WEU and NATO; European integration had progressed, with the establishment of the ECSC; the Saar question was to be resolved by the referendum in October 1955. In all of these matters, Hallstein had played a major role. Some of the main issues of German foreign policy were now German re-unification and the
relations of West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany) with its eastern neighbours, including East Germany (the German Democratic Republic). Being more involved in Western European integration, Hallstein delegated much of this work to his deputy,
Wilhelm Grewe. But in this area particularly, German foreign policy became associated with the name Hallstein. In 1955, Hallstein and Grewe accompanied Adenauer as members of a delegation to Moscow, where the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bonn and Moscow was agreed. It was on the flight back from Moscow that the policy that was later to become known as the
Hallstein Doctrine was fleshed out, though the Foreign Office had already devised and practised elements of the policy. The idea behind the Hallstein Doctrine came from Hallstein's deputy,
Wilhelm Grewe. The doctrine would become one of the major elements of West German foreign policy from September 1955 – until official recognition of
the German Democratic Republic in October 1969. Based on the
Basic Law, its
de facto constitution, the Federal Republic of Germany – then commonly known in the English-speaking world as
West Germany – claimed an
exclusive mandate to represent the whole of Germany, including the Communist
East Germany, which was aligned with the Soviet Union. One of the early objectives of West German foreign policy was the diplomatic isolation of East Germany. In 1958, journalists named this policy the
Hallstein–Grewe Doctrine, which later became shortened to the
Hallstein Doctrine. Grewe himself writes that he did devise the broad outlines of the policy, but mainly as one of a number of options, the decisions being made by the foreign minister, Brentano, and the chancellor, Adenauer; in any case, the name Hallstein doctrine may have been something of a misnomer. No official text of the so-called "doctrine" was made public, but it was explained publicly in a radio interview by its main architect, Wilhelm Grewe. Adenauer also explained the outlines of the policy in a statement to the German parliament on 22 September 1955. It meant that the Federal German government would regard it as an "
unfriendly act" if third countries were to
recognize or maintain diplomatic relations with the "German Democratic Republic" (East Germany). The exception was the
Soviet Union, as one of the
Four Powers responsible for Germany. The threatened response to such an unfriendly act was often understood to mean breaking off diplomatic relations; this was not stated as an automatic response under the policy, but remained the
ultima ratio.
European integration and the Rome treaties had opposing views on the path of
European integration. |alt=Portrait photograph of Ludwig Erhard. Members of the German government had different positions on European integration. Hallstein and his team at the Foreign Office advocated a federal solution with a form of "constitutional integration" broadly based on the
European Coal and Steel Community, with the scope gradually increasing to include additional sectors, and with true parliamentary representation of the European populace. Hallstein contended that institutional integration was in the interests of a successful German export industry.
Ludwig Erhard and the Ministry of Economics argued for a looser "functional integration" and advocated intergovernmental economic cooperation. Erhard opposed
supranational structures and characterized the Foreign Office proponents of a federal Europe as out of touch with economic realities. In the dispute, Adenauer finally supported Hallstein, settling the acrimonious, and public, conflict between Hallstein and Erhard. In 1955 the foreign ministers of the
European Coal and Steel Community met at the
Messina Conference, among other things to nominate a member of the
High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community and to appoint its new president and vice-presidents for the period ending 10 February 1957. The conference, which was held from 1 to 3 June 1955 in the Italian city of
Messina,
Sicily, would lead to the signing of the
Treaty of Rome in 1957. Shortly before the conference, Adenauer had given up his double post as Foreign Minister and, since Brentano had not yet been sworn in, Hallstein led the German delegation. The agenda included discussion of an action programme to relaunch
European integration following the collapse, in August 1954, of the plans to create a
European Political Community and a
European Defence Community, when France failed to ratify the treaty. On 6 September 1955, shortly before Adenauer's trip to Moscow, Hallstein, standing in for Brentano, attended the
Noordwijk Conference of foreign ministers convened to evaluate progress made by the
Spaak Committee. On 9 November 1955, Hallstein reported the results to the West German Cabinet, where the Ministry of Economics and the
Ministry of Agriculture opposed the plans for a
common market rather than a
free trade area. The Ministry of Economics feared that a
customs union meant
protectionism; the Ministry of Agriculture was concerned that the interests of German farmers would be betrayed;
Franz Josef Strauss opposed the perceived discrimination against German industry regarding access to
uranium. Finally, the chancellor, Adenauer, again settled the dispute between the ministries by a decision in favour of Hallstein and the Foreign Office. When the
Spaak Report (the
Brussels Report on the General Common Market) was finally presented in April 1956, it recommended a customs union. In the Cabinet meeting of 9 May 1956, there was renewed opposition to the position of the Foreign Office from other ministers, but Adenauer lent his support to Hallstein, and the Cabinet authorized intergovernmental negotiations, to be held at the conference of foreign ministers in
Venice at the end of May, the German delegation again to be led by Hallstein. In July 1956, Britain made proposals for the
Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) to examine the possibility of a free trade area for industrial goods. The French, mainly interested in Euratom, attempted to separate the debate on the two topics and proposed a compromise treaty under which only the general principles of a common market would be agreed, leaving details to be decided later, but Germany made negotiations on Euratom dependent on negotiations on a common market. At the
Venice Conference, the
French foreign minister,
Christian Pineau agreed to intergovernmental negotiations, with three provisos: the economic community was to be established in stages; customs tariffs should be reduced by only 30%; and national governments should not be overly constrained with regard to economic policy. Hallstein warned against accepting the French terms, which in his view meant that the French would push for a quick decision in favour of Euratom and delay the negotiations on the common market. Hallstein was supported by the foreign ministers of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, against France, in demanding a fixed deadline and timetable for the establishment of a common market. The
French National Assembly approved the commencement of intergovernmental negotiations in July 1956, after the prime minister,
Guy Mollet, gave an assurance that Euratom would not impose restrictions on the French nuclear weapons programme. Another cause of disagreement was the inclusion of
French overseas territories in any common market. Erhard strongly opposed this, partly because of the perceived danger of France involving the other member states in its colonial responsibilities. The Foreign Office shared these concerns to some extent but Hallstein and
Carstens were willing to accept the French position, believing it would help gain support from the French National Assembly; Hallstein also accepted the argument of his French counterpart,
Faure, that it would benefit Germany. Hallstein helped to strike a deal by which the imports and exports of overseas territories would be treated like products of the mother country and private investment and company branches of other member states would be permitted, thus opening up the overseas territories for German exports. Hallstein helped deal with these problems at two conferences of foreign ministers, one from 26 to 27 January 1957 and another on 4 February. , Walter Hallstein and
Antonio Segni, signing the
European Customs Union and
Euratom in 1957 in
Rome |alt=Walter Hallstein sitting between Konrad Adenauer and Antonio Segni On 25 March 1957, the six countries Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands signed the
Treaties of Rome. Adenauer and Hallstein signed for Germany. The foreign minister, Brentano had largely left the negotiations to Hallstein, so the signing of the treaty represented a major success for Hallstein. It was also Hallstein who explained the
treaties to the German
parliament on 21 March 1957, before they were signed on 25 March 1957.
Choosing the President of the Commission There had been previous suggestions of Hallstein becoming president of the
European Court, but now he was put forward as the German candidate for the president of the Commission, though the Belgian Minister of Economics,
Rey and the
Netherlands Agriculture Minister,
Mansholt were regarded as the strongest contenders for the position. The conference of foreign ministers on 20 December 1957 could not reach a decision, so when the Treaties of Rome took effect on 1 January 1958, the position had not been filled. At the conference of foreign ministers on 6 and 7 January 1958, however, Hallstein was finally chosen as the first president of the EEC Commission. Hallstein's selection for this position at the head of a major European organization, a decade after the end of World War II, was a major achievement for Germany. ==President of the Commission of the European Economic Community (1958–1967)==