Elysée Treaty (1963): The Franco-German Friendship Pact

The Elysée Treaty was signed in Paris on 22 January 1963 by French President Charles de Gaulle and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Officially the Treaty on Franco-German Cooperation, it committed two old enemies to meet and consult regularly, and it created exchange programmes that brought millions of young French and Germans together. It is widely seen as the founding document of the Franco-German partnership at the heart of European integration.

Background: from enemies to partners

France and Germany fought each other in 1870–1871, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945. After the Second World War, French leaders first sought security by keeping Germany weak. From 1950, however, the Schuman Declaration and the European Coal and Steel Community tied the two countries’ heavy industries together, and the Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community in 1957.

When de Gaulle returned to power in 1958, many expected him to be hostile to Germany. Instead he invited Adenauer to his private home at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises in September 1958, the only foreign leader he received there. The two elderly statesmen, both deeply Catholic and both marked by the wars, built an unusually close personal relationship.

In July 1962 Adenauer made a state visit to France that ended with the two leaders attending Mass together in Reims Cathedral. In September 1962 de Gaulle toured West Germany and was greeted by large crowds; at Ludwigsburg he addressed German youth in German. These symbolic moments prepared the ground for a formal agreement.

What the treaty said

The treaty itself is short. Its core is a set of fixed meetings rather than grand declarations:

• Heads of state and government were to meet at least twice a year.
• Foreign ministers were to meet at least every three months.
• Defence, education and youth ministers, as well as senior officials, were to meet regularly.
• The two governments promised to consult each other before taking important decisions on foreign policy, aiming as far as possible at a common position.
• Both countries would promote the teaching of each other’s language and expand exchanges of pupils, students and young workers.

De Gaulle had originally hoped for a broader political union of the six EEC states, the so-called Fouchet Plan, but this failed in 1962. The bilateral treaty was in part a substitute.

Timing and controversy

The treaty was signed only eight days after de Gaulle’s press conference of 14 January 1963, in which he vetoed Britain’s application to join the Common Market. Critics in Washington, London and Bonn feared that de Gaulle wanted to build a Franco-German bloc independent of the United States and NATO.

In West Germany, Atlanticists such as Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard were uneasy. When the Bundestag ratified the treaty on 16 May 1963, it added a preamble affirming close ties with the United States, the common defence within NATO, European integration including British membership, and free trade. De Gaulle regarded the preamble as weakening the treaty’s purpose. The treaty entered into force on 2 July 1963, and Adenauer left office in October that year.

The Franco-German Youth Office

The most concrete early result was the Franco-German Youth Office, founded on 5 July 1963 (known as OFAJ in French and DFJW in German). It subsidises school exchanges, town-twinning projects, sports meetings, language courses and internships.

Estimates of participation vary with how exchanges are counted, but the office reports that roughly 9 to 10 million young people have taken part since 1963. Thousands of town twinnings between French and German communities, many dating from these years, reinforced the same idea of reconciliation from below.

Legacy

At first the regular summits were sometimes formal and frosty, especially in the late 1960s. Over time, however, the routine of consultation proved durable. Later pairs of leaders, such as Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Helmut Schmidt, and François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, used the framework to drive European projects including the European Monetary System and the single currency.

Anniversaries added new institutions. A Franco-German Defence and Security Council and an Economic and Financial Council were created in 1988. For the 40th anniversary in 2003, the two governments declared 22 January Franco-German Day and began holding joint cabinet meetings; a shared Franco-German history textbook followed from 2006. On 22 January 2019 Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel signed the Treaty of Aachen, which renewed and extended the Elysée framework.

Timeline

• 1958, 14 September: Adenauer visits de Gaulle at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises.
• 1962, 8 July: De Gaulle and Adenauer attend Mass together at Reims Cathedral.
• 1962, 9 September: De Gaulle addresses German youth at Ludwigsburg during his tour of West Germany.
• 1963, 14 January: De Gaulle vetoes British entry into the EEC.
• 1963, 22 January: The treaty is signed at the Elysée Palace in Paris.
• 1963, 16 May: The Bundestag ratifies the treaty with an added preamble.
• 1963, 5 July: The Franco-German Youth Office is established.
• 2019, 22 January: The Treaty of Aachen extends Franco-German cooperation.

Why it matters

The Elysée Treaty turned reconciliation between France and Germany from a gesture into an institution. By forcing two governments to talk constantly, it made their cooperation a stable engine for European integration and a model of how former enemies can build a lasting peace.