London Six Power Conference

The London Six Powers Conference of 1948 is a conference held in London with the participation of three Western occupying powers ( Great Britain , the USA and France ) and Benelux countries ( Belgium , the Netherlands and Luxembourg ) as direct neighbors of West Germany , which prepared the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany . The USSR was not invited to the conference.

The negotiations within the framework of the London meeting took place between February and June 1948 in two rounds: from February 23 to March 6 and from April 20 to June 2 . The London meeting aimed at establishing the foundations on which democratic Germany will enter the world community, which primarily implied the creation of a federal and democratic German state on the territory of the western zones of occupation. To accomplish this, the prime ministers of the land were authorized to convene the constituent Parliamentary Council .

The allies and Benelux states gave this body the right to develop a constitution, while establishing restrictions (a ban on weapons of mass destruction and heavy weapons, as well as military intervention in the affairs of the Soviet zone of German occupation ). In response to the decisions of the conference, the Soviet Union stopped participating in the Control Council .

The Frankfurt documents were adopted at the London meeting, representing the recommendations of the heads of the occupying authorities in the western zones of occupation to the nine prime ministers of the federal states and the mayors of Bremen and Hamburg regarding the formation of the West German state and the London recommendations addressed to the governments of the six countries participating in the London meeting. France agreed with the decisions of the London meeting, subject to the separation of Saarland and its economic ties to France, as well as international control of the Ruhr region . Between the rounds of negotiations, the heads of military administrations announced the accession of their zones of occupation to the European Restoration Program ( Marshall Plan ).