Revision of the Statute of Occupation

On 6 March 1951, the federal government under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (CDU) obtains an initial revision of the Statute of Occupation which has been in effect since September of 1949. The statute grants far-reaching authority to the Allied High Commission (AHK) and also, in states of emergency, the exercise of governmental authority in Germany: The Federal Republic is granted expanded financial and economic privileges and especially greater freedom of action in foreign policy.

© HdG The members of the Allied High Commission at the constituting session of the first German Federal Diet (left to the right): John Mc Cloy (USA), André François-Poncet (France), Brian Robertson (Great Britain)

This occasion leads on 15 March 1951 to the founding of the Foreign Office, whose initial leadership is assumed by Adenauer himself (not until 1955 will the office of foreign minister be separated from that of the federal chancellor).