The French-German Pair through the relationships of the German chancellor and the French president

Résumé du document

After World War II, Europe was fragmented. Germany was defeated, ruined and divided by the winners of the war. France was considered as a winner and had a zone under its responsibility in Germany like the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1949, the state of the Federal Republic of Germany was created. It consisted of the west part of Germany. The eastern part was a people democracy, under the soviet control. The first German chancellor was Konrad Adenauer, from the CDU, the Christian-democrat party. France adopted a behaviour of mistrust towards this new regime. The memories of the first and second world war were still present. Konrad Adenauer was one of the founding fathers of Europe, through the creation of the Coal and Steel community in 1951. France was also part of the project. But the first French-German pair was born with the return to power in France of Charles de Gaulle in 1958. From 1958 until 1963 and the end of the mandate of Adenauer, the two men created a real link between the two countries. The peak of this collaboration was the signature in 1963 of the Elysée Treaty. They made agreements over foreign affairs, youth, defence and others.

Extraits

[...] Moreover, with the integrations of countries from central and Eastern Europe to the European Union, Germany is now the centre of gravity. It made its relation toward France changed. France had has to give up its dreams of grandeur, first in the world and then within the European Union, now dominated by the Germans. The only possibility for France to have an important influence is that the EU speaks with one voice. And the first step to realize this is a good relationship in the French- German pair. [...]

[...] This pair was the first years later, five others have existed: Georges Pompidou-Willy Brandt, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing-Helmut Schmidt, François Mitterrand-Helmut Kohl, Jacques Chirac-Gerhard Schröder, Nicolas Sarkozy- Angela Merkel. What progress came with their collaborations, especially in the European framework? How their relationships influenced the French-German pair? Did the place and perception of those two countries changed since 1963 especially with the fall of the iron curtain and the integration of new member states? The second French-German pair was constituted by Willy Brand and Georges Pompidou. They were in power during the same period: 1969-1974. [...]

[...] Giscard finally accept what was rejected by Georges Pompidou: the election of the member of the European Parliament by a popular vote. He understood that, to stay powerful, France had to build an Europe able to compete the United States. It involves compromises and a certain loss of sovereignty, idea rejected by de Gaulle and Pompidou. The president renew with the “deepest motivations of the father of Europe under the 4th Republic”.[2] Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt were both united against the United Kingdom asking a renegotiation of its economic participation in the ECC. [...]

[...] During the European summit of the Hague for instance, in 1974, he opposed the French position. The French were in favour of a wind-up of the European construction with the actual member states. On the contrary, Germany advocated for the integration of new member states. The collaboration of the two men was marked by a political decisions which tensed the relationship between the two states: the Ost-politik. Willy Brandt changed radically the politic of West Germany toward the soviet bloc. [...]

[...] This period is also a time of crisis in the relationships between Germany and the United States. Germany criticized the unwillingness of the United States to stabilize the dollar. During this conflict with the USA, collaboration with France became attractive again. France was in an important economic and social crisis. It was not so much the case of Germany: the Deutsch Mark was the second most powerful currency after the dollar and the economy was healthy. But Brandt really feels threat by the monetarism politic of the United States which provoke inflation and a decrease of the German exportation. [...]