In the Rheingauviertel/Hollerborn district of Wiesbaden, a street was named after the politician and lawyer Walter Hallstein (1901-1982) by resolution of the city council on October 4, 1995. The street is located in the so-called "Europaviertel" in the area of the former Camp Lindseys. In 1995, the local council decided to rename the streets after European and American politicians who were committed to the promotion and integration of Europe. On September 26, 1995, the entire quarter was named "Europaviertel".

Walter Hallstein was born in Mainz on November 17, 1901, the son of a government building officer. After attending elementary school and grammar school in Darmstadt and Mainz, Hallstein studied law in Bonn, Munich and Berlin. After passing the state examination, he received his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1925.

Hallstein then worked as an assistant to his doctoral supervisor Martin Wolff. In 1927, he moved to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Foreign and International Private Law, where he completed his habilitation in 1930. Walter Hallstein had already built up an academic reputation in the early years of his career and was appointed Professor of Business and Commercial Law at the University of Rostock shortly after his habilitation. At the age of 28, he was the youngest professor in the German Reich at the time.

From 1936 to 1941, Hallstein was Dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics in Rostock. A later appointment of Hallstein to the University of Munich probably failed for political reasons. In an internal assessment, it was stated that Hallstein was suspected of having a critical or even negative attitude towards National Socialism.

Hallstein became a member of the NS-Rechtswahrerbund for professional reasons. He was also a member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association, the National Socialist Air Raid Protection Association, the National Socialist Lecturers' Association and the National Socialist People's Welfare Association. Hallstein volunteered for military service in 1936 and was trained as a reserve officer in several training courses until 1939.

Hallstein maintained a friendly relationship with his Rostock colleague Friedrich Brunstäd, Professor of Protestant Theology and also Dean. One of Brunstäd's students was Eugen Gerstenmaier, who later became a CDU politician and President of the Bundestag. The theology student was close to the "Confessing Church" and had signed a petition critical of the Nazis, which is why he had to answer for his actions in academic disciplinary proceedings at the university. Hallstein had himself elected to the three-member panel of judges and was ultimately acquitted. Hallstein was already regarded as an astute lawyer and excellent negotiator at this time.

In 1941, Hallstein moved to the University of Frankfurt am Main, although he was unable to take up his work in 1942 due to being called up for military service. Hallstein was assigned to an artillery regiment of the 709th Infantry Division in occupied France, where he was taken prisoner after the landing of American troops in the summer of 1944. Hallstein was taken to the USA and interned at "Camp Como" in Mississippi, where he helped to set up a camp university and resumed his scientific work. He received special training from the American authorities as part of the "Sunflower" re-education project and was prepared to return to Germany as a potential future decision-maker.

Hallstein returned to Germany in the fall of 1945 and helped to establish the University of Frankfurt am Main. He was appointed the first post-war rector there in 1946. In 1948, Hallstein accepted a visiting professorship at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.. In the USA, he built up a network of contacts in American academia and politics.

In the summer of 1950, Walter Hallstein was appointed State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery by Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (CDU), and a year later he moved to the Foreign Office in the same position. In 1953 Hallstein joined the

CDU.

The close cooperation between Hallstein and Adenauer is shown by the fact that even after Heinrich von Brentano was appointed Foreign Minister in 1955, he retained the right to speak directly to the Chancellor and was still allowed to attend cabinet meetings. After the Bundestag elections in 1961, Hallstein was to become Foreign Minister, but the FDP opposed this because the former State Secretary was not flexible enough in terms of Ostpolitik.

Hallstein played a leading role in the negotiations to establish the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 and the European Defense Community (EDC), as well as in the negotiations to establish the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the European Economic Community (EEC). On March 25, 1957, he signed the "Treaties of Rome" with Chancellor Adenauer on behalf of the Federal Republic. In addition to the Westward integration of the Federal Republic and European policy, the division of Germany and the Cold War were two central policy areas of the Adenauer government. Here, too, Hallstein was a formative player. At the heart of Hallstein's policy was the view that everything had to be done to prevent the GDR from being upgraded or even recognized. It was against this background that the so-called Hallstein Doctrine was created, which provided for the Federal Republic to break off diplomatic relations with states that in turn established diplomatic relations with the GDR.

Walter Hallstein earned himself an excellent reputation as a foreign policy expert at European level. This was also one of the reasons why Adenauer was able to establish Hallstein as the first President of the EEC Commission within the newly created European institutions in 1958.

Hallstein's work as President of the Commission was characterized by disputes with the new French President Charles de Gaulle. After a grand coalition with Federal Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU) and Foreign Minister Willy Brandt (SPD) took over the reins of government in 1966, Hallstein's support in Bonn waned and he resigned from the office of President of the EEC Commission on June 1, 1967.

Hallstein then stood as a candidate for the CDU in the 1969 Bundestag elections and was elected to parliament as a member for the Altenkirchen-Neuwied constituency, where he served until 1972. From 1968 to 1974, Hallstein was also Chairman of the International European Movement.

Hallstein received numerous honors during his career, including the Grand Cross of Merit with Star and Shoulder Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (1953) and the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen (1961) Walter Hallstein died in Stuttgart on 29 March 1982.