‘Bonn. “Don’t worry, it’s our capable German housemaid.”’ On 3 November 1950, French cartoonist Jean Mad illustrates the question of the political future of the fledgling Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and highlights France’s concerns. Germany was subject to rapid changes in the years following the Second World War. In late 1946, the British and Americans decided to merge their respective occupation zones, and in 1948, with the addition of the French zone, western Germany became the Trizone. On 23 May 1949, a constituent assembly, the German Parliamentary Council, finally proclaimed the adoption of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The city of Bonn became the capital of the new German state. In the cartoon, Uncle Sam (the United States) is trying to reassure France, depicted as Marianne in a Phrygian cap, as to the new face of the young FRG. Germania, the housemaid (a play on words with the West German capital ‘Bonn’ and the French word for maid, ‘bonne’), is all smiles and is keen to show her neighbour Marianne that she has changed. She demonstrates her good intentions by sweeping Hitlerism, imperialism, militarism, totalitarianism and communism away from her house.