The Official Perspective

Abstract

Under the German constitution, authority for executive action in all Reich matters resided solely and exclusively with the Kaiser. Within the purview of this framework lay the conduct of foreign and colonial affairs, the formulation and implementation of which was the responsibility of the Chancellor, who was assisted in this task by the State Secretary and the officials of the German foreign office, the Auswartiges Amt also known as the Wilhelmstase. Technically, therefore, a very small and elite group of people, in no way accountable to any elected body,1 had full control over all aspects of Germany’s external behaviour.