Remembrance in France and Germany

In this the 150th anniversary year of the Treaty of Frankfurt, which saw the French and German governments make a mutual undertaking to maintain the war graves on their respective territories, it is interesting to think about how remembrance policy in the two neighbouring countries came into being. ...

Germany and France fought one another three times in 75 years, but the inherited memories of those conflicts are by no means identical. Indeed, the account of the victors cannot be compared with that of the defeated. The Franco-Prussian War was a truly traumatic experience for the French, whereas th...

The study of the different forms of remembrance is intrinsically linked to that of commemorative practices. As such, the same methods are used in France and Germany. Both countries honour and commemorate by creating special days and erecting memorials; pay tribute through the actions of patriotic so...

In terms of rhetoric and in the form of symbolic gestures, Franco-German relations since 1945 have always seen a strong emphasis on diplomatically unifying acts of historic commemoration, demonstrated as early as 9 May 1950 by Robert Schuman’s speech, which linked the creation of the European Coal a...