Bonn-Paris conventions

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The Bonn-Paris conventions were signed in 1952 and came into force after the 1955 ratification. The conventions put an end to the Allied occupation of West Germany.[1]

The delay between the signing and the ratification was due to the French failure to ratify the related treaty on the European Defense Community. This was eventually ovecome by the British Prime Minister Antony Eden proposing that West Germany become a member of NATO and the removal of the references to the European Defense Community in the Bonn-Paris conventions. The revised treaty was signed at a ceremony in Paris on 23 October, 1954.[1][2] The conventions came into force during the last meeting of the Allied High Commission, that took place in the United States Embassy in Bonn, on 5 May 1955.[1]

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[edit] Settlement Convention

Article 1 of Schedule I of the Settlement Convention provides that the Federal Republic of Germany is accorded "the full authority of a sovereign State over its internal and external affairs”. However, Article 2 provides that the Three Powers retain their rights "relating to Berlin and to Germany as a whole, including the reunification of Germany and a peace settlement". Article 2 was designed to prevent acts undertaken by the Allies during the German occupation from being questioned retroactively by West German courts.[3]

Miriam Aziz of The Robert Schumann Centre, of the European University Institute, makes the point that there is a difference between the wording of the Settlement Convention "the full authority of a sovereign State" and the wording in the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1990 were Germany is referred to as having "full sovereignty over its internal and external affairs", gives rise to a distinction between de facto and de jure sovereignty.[4][5] Detlef Junker of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg agrees with this analysis: "In the October 23, 1954, Paris Agreements, Adenauer pushed through the following laconic wording: 'The Federal Republic shall accordingly [after termination of the occupation regime] have the full authority of a sovereign state over its internal and external affairs.' If this was intended as a statement of fact, it must be conceded that it was partly fiction and, if interpreted as wishful thinking, it was a promise that went unfulfilled until 1990. The Allies maintained their rights and responsibilities regarding Berlin and Germany as a whole, particularly the responsibility for future reunification and a future peace treaty."[6]

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[edit] Further reading

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d Joachim von Elbe U.S. Embassy Bonn History U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Germany /Public Affairs/ Information Resource Centers Updated: August 2001
  2. ^ Dwight D. Eisenhower. Special Message to the Senate Transmitting Protocols to Treaties Relating to the Federal Republic of Germany 15 November, 1954 "I transmit herewith for the consideration of the Senate a certified copy of the Protocol on the Termination of the Occupation Regime in the Federal Republic of Germany, signed at Paris on October 23, 1954..."
  3. ^ Miriam Aziz References pp. 5,6
  4. ^ Miriam Aziz References p. 6
  5. ^ Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany 12 September, 1990
  6. ^ Detlef Junker (editor), Translated by Sally E. Robertson, The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, A Handbook Volume 1, 1945–1968 Series: Publications of the German Historical Institute ISBN 0511192185. See Section "THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST" paragraph 9.