Conference of Rittersturz

The conference of Rittersturz ( of Rittersturz-Konferenz ) is the meeting of the West German minister-presidents of the eleven Länder which was held from July 8th to 10th 1948 in the Rittersturz hotel with Coblentz in order to discuss the Documents Frankfurt, by which the representatives of the Western occupying forces had posed on July 1st their conditions with the creation of a West German State.

Participants

The conference took place on the initiative of Peter Altmeier, minister-president of the Rhineland-Palatinat since the previous year, which invited the other minister-presidents of the zones of American occupation, British and French; the majority were accompanied members by their government, of which Carlo Schmid, which played a big role. The two political principal parties, the Union Christian Democrat (CDU) and the social democrat Left (SPD), were represented by Konrad Adenauer and Erich Ollenhauer, which was observant and did not take share with the discussions.

Decisions

At the time of the conference was taken what one called the decisions of Coblentz ( of Koblenzer Beschlüsse ). The minister-presidents adopted the idea of the creation of a Federal state joining together Länder of the Western zones of occupation.

They thus devoted the scission with the Soviet zone, because the unification of all Germany did not appear realizable to them in the circumstances of then. They however saw the future Federal republic only like one provisional State ( of Provisorium ), of which the ultimate goal was the reunification of the country and the creation of a State of whole Germany. In order not to accentuate separation with the Eastern zone, the constitution of the new State would be qualified only “fundamental law” ( of Grundgesetz ).

Although the western powers proposed the election of a constituent Assembly, the minister-presidents decided to entrust the creation of the new State to a parliamentary Conseil composed representatives of Länder and whose work should be ratified by the provincial Parliaments.

Consequences and memory

On August 25th and 26th 1949, three months after the coming into effect of the Fundamental law and a few days after the election of the 1 {{er}} the Bundestag, the minister-presidents returned in Rittersturz and decided convocation of the Bundestag and federal Assemblée, thus concluding the process of foundation from the Federal republic. Peter Altmeier, in the capacity as spokesperson, made a proclamation with the German people in whom it was stressed that this foundation was only one stage on the difficult way of the reunification of the country.

The hotel where the conference was taken place is destroyed in 1974 because of the threats of Landslide. In 1978, a memorial is inaugurated on the spot; its three columns symbolize the three Western zones, and the slope in the East symbolizes the absence of the fourth zone, the Soviet zone of occupation. The monument carries an inscription: The conference of the German minister-presidents met here, in Rittersturz, July 8th, 9th and 10th 1948. Its discussions traced the way of the adoption of the Fundamental law and the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany by the parliamentary Council.

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