During the years of reconstruction following World War Two, before the Federal Republic had been founded, a number of German and French people were already thinking about reconciliation between the two countries. Four intellectual guiding forces saw themselves as bridge-builders across the Rhine. Germany’s first Federal President Theodor Heuss and the SPD politician Carlo Schmid, one of the fathers of the Basic Law (West Germany’s postwar constitution), came across two like-minded men from France. They were the journalists and scholars Joseph Rovan and Alfred Grosser, who were both born in Germany and had been active members of the resistance just a few years before the four men met. Together they founded the Franco-German Institute (dfi) on 1 July 1948. The Jugendstil villa in Ludwigsburg, in south-western Germany, was to generate impulses to promote Franco-German understanding: not exactly an easy task just three years after the war. In the beginning the dfi organized language courses and exchanges between school students, families and young trainees, and it helped arrange the first town-twinning between Ludwigsburg and Montbéliard. Rapprochement had begun.
In 1962 the French President General de Gaulle came to Ludwigsburg and visited the dfi villa, where the chandeliers were swiftly suspended higher for fear the tall general might bang his head. Everything went well and General de Gaulle gave a remarkable speech in Ludwigsburg. “You are the sons and daughters of a great people,” he called out to the young people in German. In those days it was a grand gesture of reconciliation. In May 2008, at the ceremony celebrating the 60th anniversary of the dfi, a prominent guest recounted his memory of the visit. “We all ran alongside the car laughing and cheering as it drove along Königsallee,” said Federal President Horst Köhler, who grew up and graduated from school in Ludwigsburg.
With the signing of the Élysée Treaty, the treaty of friendship, in 1963 and the establishment of the joint German-French exchange office (Jugendwerk), the dfi shifted its focus to scientific topics. During the 1970s the institute started expanding its range of activities with projects on bilateral communication, the politics, economy and society of the “unfamiliar friend”. The institute still organizes colloquia and produces publications today. When asked why the dfi is still needed, its director Professor Frank Baasner says the question should be reversed. What would be missing if the dfi no longer existed? According to Professor Baasner, about 3,000 people each year would have no telephone number to call when seeking advice and information about France and Franco-German relations. The callers range from students to journalists and business people. France has a Ludwigsburg dialling code in Germany.
Professor Baasner says that the dfi is a place of collective knowledge. Just because the fathers have become reconciled doesn’t mean that the children have to stop joining hands on projects. He thinks the relationship between France and Germany is probably unique in the world. But it has lost some of its attraction. German and French people have returned to everyday reality. But even day-to-day life can be complicated, especially when you live so close together as neighbours under a single European roof, and yet are still quite different. “We’re a professional observatory on France. Our tasks also include clearing up misunderstandings, correcting erroneous images,” says Professor Baasner. For instance, when President Nicolas Sarkozy suggests founding a Mediterranean Union, and some commentators call it a solo initiative, Professor Baasner points out the two countries’ respective origins, the different traditions in which they stand: on the one hand the super Europeans in Germany with their recent history; on the other the French with their tradition of dividing the world into regions of influence.
The dfi’s library contains information on the background to these and other topics. Its shelves hold some 38,000 volumes, including many documents and reports from the ministries and authorities in Paris, some of which are not freely accessible to the public. The librarian recalls that he once succeeded in getting a report of the then Prime Minister Édouard Balladur on the future of the European Constitution. You could read it in Ludwigsburg a year before it was published in France. Since he took office it has been Professor Baasner’s intention to strengthen the hyphen in the name of the Franco-German Institute. Gone are the days of the one-way street. He has opened an office in Paris and is canvassing for assignments from French ministries and companies, in order to improve their understanding of Germany. Up to now these assignments account for only a small fraction of the dfi budget. It totals around 1.6 million euros for 21 members of staff. 40 per cent of it is financed by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and 30 per cent by the state of Baden-Württemberg and the city of Ludwigsburg. The remainder comes from foundations.
The renowned French intellectual Nicolas Baverez held a lecture on the 60th anniversary of the dfi. One of his points was that the French currently appear to think highly of more things in Germany than vice versa: teenagers cheer the band Tokio Hotel, students are in love with Berlin, and scholars like Baverez praise German reforms. France needed an occasional shake-up too, he said, and called for an Agenda 2020 for Europe. That sounds like a cue for Professor Baasner to clear up some misunderstandings: he could explain to the neighbours that, unlike in France, the Federal President can call for a shake-up, but he cannot actually bring about reforms himself.
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