‘On the Schuman Plan. Right! — Now that we’ve got the right starting handle in the right place, it would be strange if neither of us managed to get this car going again!’ In May 1950, German cartoonist Roland Stigulinszky illustrates the efforts made by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to restart the engine of European integration, with the encouragements of the crowd. Sat in the car with a European flag, we see the main European leaders and politicians, including General de Gaulle, Italian Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, Belgian Paul-Henri Spaak and Luxembourg Foreign Minister Joseph Bech.

‘The pride of the inventor: Let’s hope that the thing develops better than the safety pins.’ After the declaration of 9 May 1950, German cartoonist Klaus Pielert emphasises the importance of the new Franco-German partnership at the heart of the Schuman Plan. The French Foreign Minister is trying to restore ties between France and Germany, and hopes that his plan will be more effective than the Maginot Line,. This system of fortifications built during the 1920s and 1930s in eastern and north-eastern France was intended to protect the country from further German invasion and buy the time needed to mobilise the French troops.