Parliamentarians for Europe - The networking of the German Bundestag with European parliamentary bodies (1950-1979/80)

• Applicant: Dr. Paul Lukas Hähnel
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; Political Science
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 548192382

The project examines the intertwining of the German Bundestag with European parliamentary assemblies through dual mandates during the constituent phase of the Federal Republic of Germany (1950-1979/1980). By the mid-1950s, three organizations had emerged, the Council of Europe, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the Western European Union, which aimed to promote cooperation among Western European states. These organizations established a European parliamentary level through their parliamentary assemblies, as they were linked to each other by formal and informal relations and were composed of members of national parliaments. The parliamentarians thus received a dual mandate and could act at both the national and international levels. On the one hand, the project traces the process of interweaving the Bundestag with the emerging European parliamentary level. On the other hand, it elaborates the significance of dual mandate holders for the development of parliamentary practice in the Federal Republic of Germany and for the inner-party discourse on Europe. The focus is on individual parliamentarians who exercised comparable functions at both parliamentary levels.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants