On 8 July 1962, during Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s official visit to France, President Charles de Gaulle and his guest observe a parade of French and German troops at Mourmelon military camp before attending a mass for peace at Reims Cathedral, celebrated by Monseigneur Marty, Archbishop of Reims. The two leaders are actively working for reconciliation and rapprochement between their two countries. The choice of the city of Reims to celebrate this mass for peace is highly symbolic: the city was occupied during the Franco-Prussian War, became a martyred city in the First World War and was where the German army surrendered to the Allies on 7 May 1945.