on 3 august 1959 the federal republic of germany, canada and the united kingdom signed a special agreement in bonn permitting exercises in the area of soltau-lüneburg in order to be able to train to defend germany in the event of attack during the cold war. the agreement was included in article 19 of the nato status of forces agreement (sofa). due to its protracted ratification, the law was not published in the statute book until 1961 and it went into force on 1 july 1963 as the soltau-lüneburg agreement ("soltau-lüneburg-abkommen"). in 1965 a standing committee for the soltau-lüneburg agreement ("ständiger ausschuss für das soltau-lüneburg-abkommen") was formed. it handled complaints, strove to balance the interests of different parties and coordinated civilian and military issues.