‘Reconciliation of the week … Seen by Laurel and Hardy’. On 22 September 1984, François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl pay tribute to the victims of the First World War at the Douaumont ossuary, near Verdun. After the German national anthem is played, the two leaders listen to the Marseillaise, hand in hand. This image, a strong symbol of reconciliation between France and Germany, is beamed across the world. Four days later, on 26 September, French cartoonist Jacques Laplaine paints an ironic picture of the symbolic handshake between the two leaders. President Mitterrand is depicted wearing a Prussian soldier’s uniform that is much too large for him, complete with a pointed helmet; he is holding the hand of Chancellor Kohl, who has squeezed into the uniform of a French soldier from the First World War that is several sizes too small.