On 11 December 1955, Wilhelm Grewe, Director of the Policy Department of the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), explains in a radio interview the policy that his country will adopt vis-à-vis those States which confer diplomatic recognition on the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

In 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations in exchange, notably, for the liberation of the final German prisoners of war detained in the Soviet Union. In the same year, the ‘Hallstein Doctrine’, named after Walter Hallstein, State Secretary to the Foreign Minister, is established, under which the FRG refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with States that recognise the existence of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), with the exception of the Soviet Union.

‘East is East and West is West, and ne’er the twain shall meet.' In 1956, the Cold War governs relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

On 19 October 1957, the Federal Foreign Minister, Heinrich von Brentano, sends a note to the Yugoslav Ambassador in Bonn, Dušan Kveder, announcing the end of diplomatic relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In its issue of 22 October 1957, the Bulletin of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) justifies the decision taken by the German Government to sever diplomatic relations with the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia following that country’s official recognition of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

On 14 January 1963, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) delivers a note to the Cuban Government declaring the end of their bilateral diplomatic relations in retaliation against Havana’s recognition of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Als Reaktion auf die diplomatische Anerkennung der DDR durch Kambodscha skizziert Conrad Ahlers, stellvertretender Regierungssprecher der BRD, eine differenziertere Handhabung der Hallstein-Doktrin.

On 6 June 1969, the German daily newspaper Die Zeit deplores the inconsistencies in the policy of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) towards the countries that have recognised the German Democratic Republic (DRG) and decries the Hallstein doctrine.