Herrenchiemsee convention

The Constitutional Convention at Herrenchiemsee () was a meeting of constitutional experts nominated by the minister-presidents of the Western States of Germany, held in August 1948 at former Herrenchiemsee Abbey in Bavaria. It was part of the process of drafting and adopting the current German constitution, the Basic Law ("Grundgesetz"). The draft document prepared by the Herrenchiemsee convention served as a starting point for the deliberations of the "Parlamentarischer Rat" in Bonn during 1948 and 1949.
Proceedings.
On 1 July 1948, the Western Allies had officially recommended the implementation of a West German state by handing out the Frankfurt Documents to the minister-presidents and governing mayors of the Western occupation zones. From 8 to 10 July, the minister-presidents met at Koblenz and proclaimed the establishment of a Federal Republic of Germany, which should only be a provisional arrangement but not a successor state of the German Reich.
Chaired by the representative of the Bavarian State Chancellery, the convention was inaugurated on August 10 at the Herrenchiemsee "Old Palace", a former residence of King Ludwig II. The assembly did not adopt an official name, but it was later called Herrenchiemsee Convention by the members of the "Parlamentarischer Rat". Every West German state was represented by an expert, and the West Berlin deputy Otto Suhr, because of Allied reservations, attended the meeting as a non-voting "guest". Three committees were established, which until August 23 drafted a nearly-complete concept of a new German constitution that fixed the basic principles of the Basic Law:
The federal character of the Herrenchiemsee draft corresponded with the assignment of the convention by the German States. It was adopted by a minister-presidents' conference before it was forwarded to the "Parlamentarischer Rat". The council in Bonn could rely on a highly-qualified conception with several contentious points resolved in advance, but many Social Democratic and Communist deputies originally objected against the strong exertion of influence by the states' governments.