Frankfurt documents handed over

At a conference in Frankfurt on the Main on 1 July 1948, the military governors of the United States, Great Britain and France hand over to the premiers of the states in the three Western occupation zones the so-called Frankfurt Documents.

Source: HdbG The West German Prime Ministers in the Länder during the consultations of the Frankfurt Documents near Koblenz (left to right: Lorenz Bock, Viktor Renner (both Wuerttemberg-Hohenzollern), Franz Suchan, Hermann Lüdemann, Rudolf Katz (all of them Schleswig-Holstein), Hinrich Wilhelm Kopf, Justus Danckwerts (both Lower Saxony))

Among other things these documents recommend convening a „Parliamentary Council“ comprising members of the various state parliaments with the goal of drafting a constitution for the territory of the three Western zones. Following approval by the three Western occupation powers, the constitution is to be ratified by the state parliaments. After a long struggle the premiers agree to the founding of a West German nation whose existence is permitted to have only a „provisional character“. The hope of eventually overcoming Germany’s division still remains alive.