- published: 19 Jun 2013
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Walter Hallstein (17 November 1901 – 29 March 1982) was a German politician and professor.
He was one of the key figures of European integration after World War II, becoming the first President of the Commission of the European Economic Community, serving from 1958 to 1967. He famously defined his position as "a kind of Prime Minister of Europe". His name is associated with the Hallstein Doctrine, a key doctrine in West German foreign policy during the Cold War.
Hallstein was born in Mainz, Germany, the son of a government building officer. He studied law in Bonn, Munich and Berlin and graduated in 1925 with a doctoral dissertation on the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles with regard to insurance policies. From 1926 he worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Foreign Private and International Private Law in Berlin. In 1930, at the age of 28, he was appointed professor for private law and company law at the University of Rostock (Rostock), where he remained until 1941. During Nazism Hallstein was a member of National Socialist People's Welfare and national socialist professional associations for lawyers and judges. In 1941 he was appointed professor of civil law at the University of Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main). He was also, at the same time, director of the university's Institute for Comparative Law and Commercial Law.
Actors: Jean Musy (composer), Fabien Pondevaux (miscellaneous crew), Vania Vilers (actor), Fritz von Friedl (actor), Perrine Fontaine (miscellaneous crew), Patrick Pechoux (miscellaneous crew), Hans Meyer (actor), Marc Chapiteau (actor), François Marthouret (actor), Yves Pignot (actor), Arnauld de Battice (producer), Christine Boisson (actress), Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu (actor), Joelle Tercinet (miscellaneous crew), Yves Swennen (producer),
Plot: It's May 1950, just before the now-famous Robert Schuman Declaration. Schuman was the French Foreign Minister, who brokered friendly Franco-German Relations after 3 large-scale wars between the two European powers within 70 years brought havoc to Europe regularly. A year after the German Federal Republic (West) was established with Anglo-Franco-American agreement in 1949, the 1950 Declaration, which included the Benelux countries as well, created a West European Customs & Trade Zone. They later added a few more countries to become the European Economic Community, then after two enlargements in the 1980s and 1990s became the EU - the European Union, now expanded significantly larger in area, population, and in economic unity. In the first decade of this century, the EU has again been enlarged twice - the last in 2007 adding Romania and Bulgaria. This story of the EU's origins is told through the chance encounter of a young couple: Jean Monnet, a journalist from the Stuttgarter Zeitung, and the French Marie. They believe in a Union of Western Europe, and help in their own ways to bring the idea about,and change Europe's history forever - up to today, in any case. Later on, Monnet would be Robert Schuman's ally in the quest for peace and reconciliation across the continent. This film by Franck Apprederis was produced as part of the 50th Anniversary Commemorations of the European Union.
Keywords: european-union, journalist, post-world-war-two