Reliability on the one side of the Rhine, and lightness of being on the other - characteristics that complement each other. Are Germany and France really Europe's dream team? What's the basis of their relationship?
That idiom is the first thing Celine Caro thinks of when she thinks about what it is that could possibly make France so appealing for Germans: "France has this reputation that it's the country of good cuisine". Caro has been living in Germany for ten years and works for a political foundation. Her friends and family have come to understand her enthusiasm for Germany now, she says, but it took a while. She recalls how her French friends reacted when she decided to move to Germany to study - they all thought it was strange and that Germany was boring. "Now I'm in Berlin, and the French are completely thrilled. At the moment Berlin is Europe's best capital."
Both countries, she says, at some point understood that they were "better off together than apart." The 1963 Elysee Treaty institutionalized the reconciliation. "What happened in terms of reconciliation in the post-war period is almost a miracle," Deussen adds, especially when you look at just how deep the differences were. Petra Sigmund is the press spokesperson of the German Embassy in Paris and says she is fascinated by the way the relationship developed: "What's so precious about Franco-German relationships is how we move towards each other even if we have very different instinctive reactions to many questions."
For more: What's so special about the Franco-German relationship? | Europe | DW.DE | 26.04.2012
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