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Restatement of Policy on Germany

"Restatement of Policy on Germany", or the "Speech of Hope", is a speech given by James F. Byrnes, the US Secretary of State, in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946.

The speech set the tone of future US policy, as it repudiated the economic policies of the Morgenthau Plan, and its message of a change to a policy of economic reconstruction gave the Germans hope for the future.


Due to controversial comment about Polish-German post-war border, favoring Germany, the speech improved the German-American relationship while simoultanesly worsening Polish-American one.

The President's Economic Mission to Germany and Austria

A Report on Germany

London Agreement on German External Debts

"On the Implementation of the Potsdam Agreement: An Essay on U.S. Postwar German Policy" Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 2. (Jun., 1972), pp. 242–269.

John Gimbel

Text of the "Stuttgart speech", September 6, 1946

Deutsch-Amerikanische Zentrum / James-F.-Byrnes-Institut e.V

James Francis Byrnes and U.S. Policy towards Germany 1945–1947

James W. Riddleberger , (Part 1) Chief, Division of Central European Affairs, U.S. Dept. of State, 1944–47

(Part 3)

Commander in chief, U.S. Forces in Europe and military governor, U.S. Zone, Germany, 1947–49

General Lucius D. Clay

National Archives excerpts of Cabinet meetings, part of which discuss the speech and the Morgenthau plan.

U.K. Policy towards Germany

Time Magazine, September 16, 1946. "Journey to Stuttgart"

Iron Curtain.

CNN