‘Doctor’s appointment. “Thank you for coming, the child is doing very well!”’ On 23 September 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, French cartoonist Kb2 paints an ironic picture of the attention paid by the United States (in the centre, Uncle Sam) and the United Kingdom (on the right, John Bull) to the economic recovery of defeated Germany and to the question of the Ruhr. The young Germania, wearing a Wehrmacht helmet and waving a little Nazi flag, is pampered by the two Western Allies, to the annoyance of France (on the left, Marianne), who seems irritated at these Anglo-American efforts. For Paris, the question of the Ruhr and its international governance has security and economic implications. The French are keen to prevent the resources of this German industrial basin from being used for military purposes, as had been the case under Hitler. But they also want to prevent the re-establishment of major trusts that would enable Germany to regain its industrial might. In November 1947, the Americans and British set up a German administration in the Bizone to manage the Ruhr mines. As expected, France immediately expresses its dissatisfaction with this arrangement.