Gerhard Schröder and the First ‘Ostpolitik'

During most of the Adenauer era, there was not much of a German Eastern policy (Ostpolitik). Only during Adenauer’s famous visit to Moscow in 1955 were diplomatic relations established with the Soviet Union. And even this step was most difficult for the German government to take—after all, the Soviet Union was the power that supported East Germany, which at the time the West had not yet recognized and which in the Federal Republic was usually referred to as the ‘SBZ’, the Soviet Occupation Zone. In order to conceal the inconsistency of not recognizing the GDR on the one hand and establishing diplomatic relations with its ‘occupying’ power on the other, the Hallstein doctrine was put into effect. This declared that the recognition of the GDR by any other state would be considered an unfriendly act by the West German government. ¹ It was intended to block and in fact did block all attempts to improve relations between West Germany and Eastern Europe. It was only in light of that situation that the more flexible policies of Gerhard Schröder, who became foreign minister in the last Adenauer cabinet (1961) and stayed in office throughout the short-lived Erhard era, were interpreted by contemporaries and most historians as the first Ostpolitik. ²