Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, European Security and the German Question, Volume III, Part 2

396.1/3–951

The Chancellor of the Federal Republic (Adenauer) to the Chairman of the Allied High Commission for Germany (François–Poncet)¹

Bonn, March 9, 1951.

In your letter of February 22, 1951,² you notified me that the governments represented in the Allied High Commission, in full appreciation of the German interests in the questions to be taken up at the preliminary and final conferences of the four foreign ministers, are prepared to inform the Federal Government to the fullest extent on the negotiations and to transmit the views of the Federal Government to their governments.

In carrying out this assurance you have informed me that the 3 Western Allied Powers intend to examine at the conference of the 4 Foreign Ministers above all the reasons which have led to the current international tensions. The Federal Government sincerely welcomes this intention, because it is convinced that the basis for a lasting peace in Europe and in the world can be created only by recognizing and removing the real causes of these tensions. It further shares the opinion of the Western Powers that these causes are by no means confined to the German problem. The German problem is rather one of the results of the much more extensive tensions existing between the West and Soviet Russia. At the same time it is one of the reasons for the continuation of these tensions. The settlement of the German question, therefore, is one of the main prerequisites for maintaining peace. This settlement cannot result without concurrence of the German people.

I have the honor of submitting to Your Excellency as follows the opinion of the Federal Government on the German question with the request to transmit it to the governments of the 3 powers represented in the Allied High Commission.

It has been stated clearly and unequivocally in the declarations of the Federal Government of 22 March and 14 September 1950, that the way to German unity can be found through a free and uninfluenced decision by the German people. Therefore, it was demanded that free, general, uniform, secret and direct elections be held throughout Germany for a constituent German parliament, to which simultaneously should be transferred—until the coming into force of free constitution—the responsibility of regulating the exercise of all-German governmental powers.

To the satisfaction of the German people, the Allied High Commission, in the name of their governments, have identified themselves with this demand and forwarded it with its endorsement to the chief of the Soviet-control commission for Germany on October 9, 1950. The Federal Government remains of the opinion that the restoration of German unity can result only on the basis of genuinely free all-German elections. For this reason it reiterates with utmost resoluteness its demand that such elections be held as soon as possible. The prerequisite for the holding of genuinely free elections, however, is that the indispensable freedoms are guaranteed in the Soviet Zone, just as in the Federal Republic before, during and after the elections. For years civil liberties have been suppressed in the Soviet Zone and only most recently its population has been placed under especially sharp political pressure through the so-called law for the protection of peace. This measure, not to mention the abolition of all guarantees of a constitutional order which is recognized in all democratic countries as the basis of civil liberties—especially the truly independent administration of justice and an orderly legal procedure—has created an atmosphere of insecurity and of fear in the Soviet Zone in which it would be impossible to carry out free elections. This insecurity and fear will not disappear overnight. Therefore, it is not sufficient if only declarations and assurances are made in connection with the prerequisites for the holding of free elections. Rather it is necessary that the political and psychological prerequisites for the holding of free elections throughout Germany are created without delay so that they can become effective within a reasonable period of time. Thus, civil liberties which are characteristic of a democratic state must be guaranteed, for a reasonable period of time and in harmony with the FedReps constitution and its implementation before a free election can take place there.

The Federal Government does not believe that the causes of all existing tension can be removed through the realization of the measures propounded above which concern Germany alone. It is convinced, however, that these proposals represent the minimum which it itself can contribute as its share in the common responsibility toward the securing of peace.³

1. The source text was transmitted in telegram 605 from Bonn, March 9.
2. Not printed.
3. The text of this message was approved at a special session of the Bundestag on March 9. During the same session the Bundestag approved a resolution supporting the Chancellor’s letter which called on the Four-Power Conference to establish conditions for all-German elections to a Parliament which alone would have the plenary powers of a constituent and law-giving assembly and would be “effectively protected against unauthorized and illegal interference.” Bonn reported on the Bundestag session in telegram 606, March 9, and transmitted the text of the Bundestag resolution in telegram 604, March 10 (762A.00/3–951 and 396.1/3–1051). The text of the resolution is also printed in Documents on German Unity, vol. i, pp. 141–142 and in Folliot, Documents on International Affairs, 1951, pp. 273–275.