Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Germany)/12–1748

Resolution of the Parliamentary Council1

[Bonn, December 12, 1948.]

Comments of the Parliamentary Council on the Occupation Statute as Worked Out in Interfactional Meeting, Introduced in the Main Committee and Passed by Vote of 20–1 (KPD)

According to the content of Document No. 32 and of the common German-Allied press release of 26 July 1948,3 the Parliamentary Council was supposed to be currently informed by the Occupying Powers on the stages of the preparations for the Occupation Statute. Furthermore, the Council was supposed to have an opportunity to submit to the Military Governments suggestions concerning the development of the Occupation Statute. Since the negotiations meanwhile are approaching their end, the Parliamentary Council deems it timely to present its opinions to essential questions of the pending Occupation Statute.

It believes that the Occupation Statute should contain the following principles in order to start a development which ought to be aimed at in the common interest of Germany and the Occupying Powers.

I. Leading Principles

1.
Taking over of German state sovereignty by the German state organs provided in the Basic Law.
2.
Legal regulation of the relationship of the Occupying Powers to Germany within the framework of the reservations conditioned by the occupation purposes.
3.
Avoidance of regulations which could impair the normal opportunities of the German people and development of a living, peaceful democracy in Germany.

II. Objectives of the Occupation

1.
Security of the Organs of the Occupation
2.
Promotion of a peaceful democratic development
3.
Germany’s security

III. Presumption in favor of German competence

Limitations on German competencies for legislation, jurisdiction, and administration solely by competencies of the Occupying Powers which result from the Occupation Statute.

IV. Controls

Joint measures of supervision by the Occupying Powers exclusively for the purpose of realizing the objectives of the occupation, and also exclusively from the viewpoint of the legality of German measures. Exercise of this right vis-à-vis the federal government.

V. Implementing Regulations

Preparation of implementing regulations for the Occupation Statute in mixed committees with German agencies participating.

VI. Legislation

Joint right of the Occupying Powers, limited in time, to veto German legislation so far as it is incompatible with the objectives of the occupation.

VII. Jurisdiction

1.
Complete independence of the German judiciary.
2.
Jurisdiction of German civil courts also over members of the occupation except in cases of extra-territoriality and of civil claims against members of the occupation resulting from their official actions.
3.
Jurisdiction of military courts in principle only over offenses committed by a member of the occupation or its attendance as well as for offenses committed by Germans or foreigners against occupation laws serving the security of the occupation.

VIII. International Affairs

1.
Freeing of German economic relations with foreign countries from existing limitations.
2.
Establishment of German Consulates abroad.
3.
Re-application of international agreements in favor of Germany.
4.
Participation of German representatives in international conferences.
5.
Restoration of the protection of German patents-, patterns-, trademarks-and copy-rights abroad.
6.
Limitations on restitutions to property for which it is established that it was removed from foreign territory by force or coercion.

IX. Occupation Requirements

1.
Occupation requirements according to the Hague Convention, with due consideration for the German population, its housing space, for the German economy within the framework of the productivity of the territory, and after consultation of the competent German authorities.
2.
Annual fixing of the total of the occupation requirements in advance, in consultation with the federal government and with regard to the general situation of the German budgets, the German population and the German economy.
3.
Crediting of all payments made and services rendered to the occupation including in this amount all recompensation paid for occupation damages.

X. Emergency Measures

Joint emergency measures of the Occupying Powers, limited in time, in case of serious danger to security and order, if the German authorities are unable to provide redress.

XI. Basic Rights

1.
Validity of the individual rights and freedoms guaranteed in the German Basic Law, also in relation to the organs of the Occupying Powers.
2.
Limitations of the freedom of scientific research only to the extent as it serves to develop and produce instruments destined for war use.

XII. Arbitration and Revision

1.
Settling of disputes regarding the interpretation and application of the Occupation Statute through mixed courts or mixed arbitration boards.
2.
Inclusion into the Occupation Statute of a clause according to which the reserved rights of the Occupying Powers and the rest of the Statute will be revised at regular intervals with a view to their reduction, in order to further Germany’s development towards full independence.

  1. This resolution was adopted by the Main Committee of the Parliamentary Council on December 12. Only a Communist (KPD) voted against its adoption. The source text, presumably a translation prepared by Western military authorities, was circulated as Appendix “C” to document TRIB/P(48)14–TOS/P(48)1/5, December 15, a collection of materials prepared by the Tripartite Committee on the Occupation Statute for consideration by the Three Western Military Governors at their meeting on December 16. Ambassador Murphy transmitted a copy of the source text under cover of a brief letter of December 17 to John D. Hickerson, not printed.↩
  2. The reference here is to the statement by General Koenig at the meeting at Frankfurt on July 1 between the Military Governors and the Ministers President; see the editorial note, p. 380.↩
  3. See footnote 3 to telegram 65, July 26, from Frankfurt, p. 412.↩