The Hallstein Doctrine, named after Walter Hallstein, was a key doctrine in the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) after 1955. It established that the Federal Republic would not establish or maintain diplomatic relations with any state that recognized the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany). Important aspects of the doctrine were abandoned after 1970 when it became difficult to maintain and the Federal government changed its politics towards the GDR.
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Background
In diplomacy the non-recognition of another state, and the discouraging of third states to do the same, is an old instrument. In the first years after the establishing of the communist Soviet Union and Red China, the United States of America refused to have diplomatic contact with them, and similar were the cases of the partitioned states Korea and Vietnam.
The Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949 with the consideration that it was the only legitimate (democratic) representation of the German people. It did not recognize GDR but tried to achieve German unity under a freely elected, democratic government. The Federal Republic did not have diplomatic contacts with GDR or other communist states.
In 1955 the Federal government of Konrad Adenauer visited Moscow and established diplomatic relations because of the special significance of the Soviet Union as a victory state of World War II. There appeared to be an inconsistency in the establishment of relations with this communist state and not the others who also recognized the GDR.
Hallstein Doctrine
The doctrine was named after Walter Hallstein, then "state secretary" (the top civil servant) at the Foreign Office, though largely devised by the head of the political department, Wilhelm Grewe.
The doctrine was understood to be that the Federal government would not establish or maintain diplomatic relations with any state that recognised the German Democratic Republic (GDR) - with the exception of the Soviet Union.
The doctrine was applied twice, to Yugoslavia in 1957, and to Cuba in 1963. Both had first recognized the GDR.
In 1958 the newly founded republic of Guinea accepted a Federal German ambassador and a GDR trade mission. When the country in 1960 sent an ambassador to GDR, the Federal Republic withdrew its own. Guinea then declared that it had never sent an ambassador to the GDR.
Problems of the doctrine
The doctrine seemed to succeed for a long time in isolating the GDR, at least from important Western or Third World states. But it also limited the federal government's politics, and in the 1960s it became more and more difficult to maintain.
In several cases, the doctrine was in fact not applied. When, in 1957, the GDR opened an office in Cairo to establish contact with the entire Arab world, the Federal Republic did not withdraw its ambassador from Egypt. Moreover, when in 1965 the Federal Republic established diplomatic relations with Israel, many Arab states ceased theirs with the Federal Republic but did not recognise the GDR. This eventually happened after 1967, because the GDR had supported the Arab states in the Six-Day War. The doctrine was also not applied to Cambodia in 1969, although it had recognised the GDR.
The Federal Republic established diplomatic relations with Romania in 1967 and reestablished those with Yugoslavia in 1968. The government's argument was that the communist states had been in fact forced to recognise the GDR and should not be punished for that.
Abolition
In 1969 Willy Brandt became German Chancellor as head of a social democrat / liberal government. The new government maintained the main political goals such as the German reunification in peace and freedom, but it altered the way to achieve these goals. Brandt's new Ostpolitik was a policy of negotiating with the GDR government in order to improve the situation of Germans in GDR and involved supporting visits from one part of Germany to the other. As part of this, the Federal Republic de facto recognized the GDR, emphasizing that both German states could not be "foreign" to each other, that their relationships can be only of a special kind. The Hallstein doctrine became obsolete.
Similar situations
Similar exclusive mandate policies (One-China policy) were (and still are) pursued by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, and the situation in Vietnam during the Vietnam War was somewhat similar.
See also
References
- (German) Explanation of the Hallstein Doctrine, Interview of Wilhelm Grewe, Head of the Political Dept. of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. Interview with Hans Wendt, Editor of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk. Erläuterung der sog. "Hallstein-Doktrin" durch den Leiter der Politischen Abteilung des Auswärtigen Amts, Ministerialdirektor Wilhelm Grewe, in einem Interview mit dem Chefredakteur des Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks, Hans Wendt, am 11. Dezember 1955; Auszug (transcript (extract)). Norddeutscher Rundfunk. 11 December 1955. Retrieved on 2009-03-13.