21. September 1949

Ansprache des Geschäftsführenden Vorsitzenden der Alliierten Hohen Kommission für Deutschland, François-Poncet, bei dem Empfang des Bundeskanzlers Adenauer

M[r]. Chancellor: Your nomination to the post of Federal Chancellor and the formation of the Cabinet which you will direct represent the last element of the democratic parliamentary system according to which the Federal Republic of Germany must be governed in the future.

We are pleased to see that the provisions of basic law were thus applied in every respect, without disturbance to order and peace.

Western Germany is now in possession of the instrument which will enable her to take in hands the conduct of her destinies.

We are convinced that you will know how to guide her for the individual welfare and the collective prosperity of her people on the roads of liberty and peace where she will once more find the confidence of other peoples, to whom she is united by a community of culture.

The visit which you are paying us and for which we thank you, marks the starting point of the official existence of the Allied High Commission. You are well aware of the principles which are to guide our relations with you and with your Government as well as of our reciprocal rights and duties. They were exactly defined in an instrument which takes effect this very day and this very moment. This instrument may, as you observed, be revised at a later date. This revision will be as prompt and as extensive as the respect of the statute has been scrupulous.

We appreciate it that you have recalled that the occupation powers have preserved the German population from starvation and gave the impulse to the recovery of your country. Let me assure you on behalf of my colleagues and myself, and in the name of our respective Governments that the High Commissioners will always make it their duty to give to the new institutions their kindest and most efficient assistance. Particularly, they will not fail to consider the ways and means to solve, by international intervention, your difficult problems. Their desire corresponds to yours. They hope that the young German democracy, as a factor of order and peace, may take her place within the future organization of a Europe resting on sound economic and political basis.

To you, M[r]. Chancellor, and to all the members of your Cabinet whom we greet at your side, we wish the best of luck and the greatest success in the difficult but so very honorable task which is now yours.

 

Quelle: Germany 1947-1949. The Story in Documents. Hg. vom United States Department of State. Washington (D.C.) 1950. S. 322f.