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Walter Hallstein – Champion of Europe

Bonn: Hallstein at his desk in 1957 as state secretary in the Foreign Office. BPA

They called him "Monsier l'Europe" and sometimes the "Kaiser von Europa." The German jurist Walter Hallstein played a major role in the 1950s in laying the foundations for the European Economic Community, and in 1958 he became the first President of the European Commission in Brussels. The man whose name stands for the so-called Hallstein Doctrine and who thereby shaped Germany’s foreign policy for many years, died 25 years ago, on March 29, 1982.

Walter Hallstein (born November 17, 1901) was a jurist and then professor, teaching at the University of Rostock in northern Germany from 1930 to 1941 and then moving to the Frankfurt University in 1941. After the second world war he became a founding rector of the re-opened Frankfurt University (Frankfurt am Main).

It was shortly after his return from being a US prisoner of war that Hallstein began his work to assure that Germany would become integrated into international organizations, such as the United Nations cultural body UNESCO. In 1950, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer assigned him to lead the German delegation at the negotiations for the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community. The treaty, which is regarded as one of the foundation stones of the present-day European Union, was signed on April 18, 1951.

Signer of the Treaty of Rome

Rome: Konrad Adenauer (left) and Walter Hallstein signing the Treaty of Rome

In the same year, Hallstein became Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry. As a close aide to Adenauer, he helped to get Germany anchored in the Western alliance. The lawyer played an influential role in the work on the EU’s founding treaties, such as the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European nuclear energy organization EURATOM. On March 25, 1957 in Rome, Adenauer and Hallstein put their signatures to the Treaty of Rome, making West Germany a founding member of the EEC along with France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands.

As EEC Commission President from 1958 onwards, Hallstein worked towards establishing a common market and various European institutions. Hallstein, who was convinced that European integration was a foundation for peace, was awarded the Charlemagne Prize by the city of Aachen in 1961 for his work on behalf of Europe. Further prizes would follow.

Aachen: Hallstein, left, then president of the Commission, received the Charlemagne Prize in 1961. BPA

The jurist was to become internationally known for the doctrine that from 1955 onwards shaped German foreign policy. Under the Hallstein Doctrine, the Federal Republic of Germany was supposed to break off ties with those countries that recognized the communist German Democratic Republic. The Hallstein Doctrine was controversial, however. In the 1960s, Bonn gradually abandoned its policy of seeking to isolate the GDR.

In 1967, Hallstein stepped down as president of the Commission. But with his commitment to Europe, he served until 1974 as president of the European Movement, an organization of various European policy interest groups. He died in 1982 at the age of 80.

Fifty Years of European Integration

The signature of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 created our European family. Fifty years later, we are coming ever closer together. Fifty years later, we have a lot to celebrate.