Hans von der Groeben (14 May 1907 – 6 March 2005) was a German diplomat, lawyer and journalist and member of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

. Von der Groeben was born in Langheim (today Łankiejmy,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) near Rastenburg,

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

. A son of landowner Georg von der Groeben and Eva von Mirbach, he studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...

and political economics at the Universities of Berlin, Bonn and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. After the state exams he became a government advisor in 1933 at the Ministry of Nutrition (Reichsernährungsministerium) and in 1937 transferred to his final advisory position for credit and cooperatives (Referats für das Kredit- und Genossenschaftswesen). For periods during the Second World War he served as a reserve in the armed forces, ending up as a first lieutenant. After the war he became a director of government in the Treasury of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. Federal Minister for Economic Affairs

Ludwig Erhard Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is known for leading the West German postwar economic ...

recruited him from there to work on Germany's response to the

Schuman Declaration The Schuman Declaration, or Schuman Plan, was a proposal to place French and West German production of coal and steel under a single authority that later became the European Coal and Steel Community, made by the French foreign minister, Rober ...

for better Franco-German relations. From 1953 he represented the Federal Government in the coordinating committee of the

European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to regulate the coal and steel industries. It was formally established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris, signed by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemb ...

. He ranks among the fathers of the European Union, he was one of the authors of the Spaak Report, calling for the establishment of the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

. He was vice-chair of the German delegation, led by Alfred Mueller Armack at the 1956 Brussels Conference which led to the

Treaty of Rome The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was sig ...

and was chair of the "Common Market" committee. He is responsible for the fact that the

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

received a contractually specified free market framework and found a kindred spirit in the French delegation leader,

Robert Marjolin Robert Marjolin (27 July 1911 – 15 April 1986) was a French economist and politician involved in the formation of the European Economic Community. Early life and education Robert Majolin was born in Paris, the son of an upholsterer. He left ...

. When the Treaty of Rome came into effect on 1 January 1958, Chancellor

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...

appointed Von der Groeben as the second German member of the first

, along with Walter Hallstein who became the commission president. Responsible for competition policy, Von der Groeben set the foundations of the European antitrust rights, introduced the value added tax system as well as the adjustment of the control systems and the European joint patents. The December 1961 adoption of the European antitrust rights is based on his efforts to unite the French and German systems. He remained a member of the second

Hallstein Commission The Hallstein Commission is the European Commission that held office from 7 January 1958 to 30 June 1967. Its president was Walter Hallstein and held two separate mandates. Work It was the first commission on the European Economic Community and ...

and the

Rey Commission The Rey Commission is the European Commission that held office from 2 July 1967 to 30 June 1970. Its president was Jean Rey. Work It was the first commission of the merged European Communities. It was the successor to the Hallstein Commission a ...

, serving until 1970. After leaving the commission in 1970 he became an advisor to the CDU on questions of European policy and worked actively as a scientists and journalist. In 1967 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Frankfurt. He married Gunhild von Rosenberg in 1934 and they had 3 children. Von der Groeben died in 2005, aged 97, in

Rheinbach Rheinbach is a town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis district (Landkreis), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It belongs to the administrative district (Regierungsbezirk) of Cologne. Geography Situated south-west of Bonn and south of Cologne, Rheinbac ...

near

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

External links

* , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Groeben, Hans von der 1907 births 2005 deaths European Commissioners for Competition People from Kętrzyn County German European Commissioners People from East Prussia Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Bonn alumni University of Göttingen alumni Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany European Commissioners 1967–1970