Élysée Treaty

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Élysée Treaty

Treaty between the French Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany on French-German Cooperation
Original treaty document with signatures
Type	Friendship Treaty
Context	Post-War Europe Franco-German cooperation
Signed	22 January 1963 (1963-01-22)
Location	Élysée Palace, Paris
Original signatories	Charles de Gaulle Georges Pompidou Maurice Couve de Murville Konrad Adenauer Gerhard Schröder
Parties	France  West Germany
Languages	French German
Full text
Élysée Treaty at Wikisource

The Élysée Treaty was a treaty of friendship between France and West Germany, signed by President Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on 22 January 1963 at the Élysée Palace in Paris.^[1] With the signing of this treaty, Germany and France established a new foundation for relations, bringing an end to centuries of French–German enmity and wars.

Background

The post-war West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer made rapprochement between the historic rivals one of his priorities.[5]

Contents

The treaty called for regular consultations between France and West Germany on all important questions concerning defense, education and youth issues. It also requires regular summits between high-level officials, which implies that the Heads of State and Government have to meet at least twice a year and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs every three months, to ensure close collaboration between the two states.^[5][6]

The first meeting between the two heads of state took place at the private home of General de Gaulle at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises in September 1958. Since then, French and German heads of state have kept up the strong relationship, often considered as the engine of European integration.^[7][8]

Additionally, an interministerial commission was established to coordinate and oversee the Franco-German collaboration. It consisted of high-ranked officials of every involved ministry.^[6]

Controversy

Just two months after the signing of the friendship treaty, a new controversy between France and West Germany occurred. President de Gaulle intended the treaty to make West Germany distance itself and eventually separate itself from its American protector. He saw West Germany (and the other member states of the European Economic Community) as vassalized by Washington. The treaty was notable in that it made no mention of the United States, United Kingdom, NATO, or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).^[9]

However, after US President John F. Kennedy expressed his displeasure about this to the West German ambassador to the United States, the Bundestag ratified the treaty with a preamble which called on France and West Germany to pursue tight cooperation with the United States; the eventual admission of the United Kingdom to the EEC; the achievement of a free trade accord in the framework of the GATT; and for the West's military integration in NATO under US leadership.^[10] This effectively emptied the Treaty of any sense (in Gaullist understanding) and put end to General de Gaulle's hopes of building the EEC into a counterweight to the US and the USSR. "The Germans are behaving like pigs. They are putting themselves completely at the Americans' service. They're betraying the spirit of the Franco-German Treaty. And they're betraying Europe."^[11] Later, in 1965, the General told his closest aides behind closed doors: "The Germans had been my greatest hope; they are my greatest disappointment."^[12]

Aftermath

DFG-LFA Freiburg

in Germany, a school that was established as result of the treaty

Among the direct consequences of the Treaty are the creation of the

between numerous French and German towns, schools and regions. Another outcome of the Treaty was the Franco-German military brigade, which was established in 1987 and is still intact.^[13]

In January 2003, the

New forms of bilateral coordination between the two countries were created in the course of the 40th anniversary celebration, such as the

]

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron, along with lawmakers from both countries, called for a "new Élysée Treaty" in January 2018 on the occasion of its 55th anniversary.^[17][18] The so-called Aachen Treaty was signed on 22 January 2019.^[19]

See also

• France–Germany relations
• Schuman Declaration
• History of Europe

References

Further reading

• Peyrefitte, Alain (1997). C'était de Gaulle, tome 2 (in French). Paris:
  ISBN 9782253147688
  .
• Lappenküper, Ulrich (2001). Die deutsch-französischen Beziehungen 1949–1963. Von der „Erbfeindschaft“ zur „Entente élémentaire“ (in German). Munich:
  ISBN 3-486-56522-2
  .
• Baumann, Ansbert (2002). Die organisierte Zusammenarbeit. Die deutsch-französischen Beziehungen am Vorabend des Élysée-Vertrags (1958–1962). DFI Compact (in German). Ludwigsburg:
  ISSN 1619-8441
  .
• Baumann, Ansbert (2003). Begegnung der Völker? Der Élysée-Vertrag und die Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Deutsch-französische Kulturpolitik von 1963 bis 1969 (in German). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
  ISBN 3-631-50539-6
  .
• Defrance, Corine; Pfeil, Ulrich (2005). Der Élysée-Vertrag und die deutsch-französischen Beziehungen 1945–1963–2003 (in German). Munich:
  ISBN 3-486-57678-X
  .
• Defrance, Corine; Pfeil, Ulrich (2012). La France, l’Allemagne et le traité de l’Élysée, 1963–2013 (in French). Paris:
  ISBN 978-2-271-07488-1
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Élysée Treaty.

• Original text in French: Traité de l'Élysée; in German: Élysée-Vertrag
• Joint Declaration accompanying the Treaty
• German-language facsimile of the original treaty at the Bavarian State Library
• Press Conference of Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder on occasion of the treaty's 40th anniversary, C-SPAN 2003