In 1965, during the campaign for the legislative elections in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), a party political broadcast by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) promotes the party’s commitment and, in particular, the commitment of its very first leader, Konrad Adenauer, to Franco-German rapprochement.

In 1965, during the campaign for the legislative elections in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) makes a party political broadcast in which Konrad Adenauer, former Federal Chancellor, highlights the importance of Franco-German rapprochement for the establishment of a united Europe and for the fight against Communism.

In May 1957, in Bonn, Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), delivers an address to the Council of Foreign Ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in which he emphasises the importance of NATO in countering the threat represented by the Soviet Union.

On 8 September 1994, a military parade is held in the courtyard of Charlottenburg Palace to mark the departure of Western Allied troops from the City of Berlin. The parade is attended by Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), Warren Christopher, US Secretary of State, John Major, British Prime Minister, and François Mitterrand, President of the French Republic.

On 31 August 1994, Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), welcomes Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, to Berlin on the occasion of the departure of the troops from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) stationed in Berlin. A ceremony is held at the Neue Wache, a memorial dedicated to the victims of all wars and oppressive regimes.

Shortly after the signing, on 27 October 1956 in Luxembourg, of the Franco-German Treaty on the Saar, Otto Lenz, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) MP and Head of the Saar Committee in the Bundestag, emphasises the hope that this territorial reintegration represents for the millions of Germans still living under foreign rule.

Interview with Paul Collowald, Director of the joint European Communities Information Service from 1958 to 1959; spokesman for Robert Marjolin, Vice-President of the European Commission, from 1959 to 1967; deputy spokesman for the European Commission from 1967 to 1972; Director in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Information from 1973 to 1984; Director-General for Information and Public Relations of the European Parliament from 1984 to 1988; and Head of the Private Office of Pierre Pflimlin, President of the European Parliament, from 1984 to 1987, carried out by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 27 and 28 June 2002 at the CVCE’s home in the Château de Sanem. The interview was conducted by Étienne Deschamps, a Researcher at the CVCE, and particularly focuses on the following subjects: the Council of Europe and the early days of European unification; the information policy of the European Communities; and the growing powers of the European Parliament.

Interview with Georges Berthoin, Head of the Private Office of Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) from 1952 to 1955, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the ECSC and Chargé d'Affaires to the United Kingdom from 1956 to 1958, Deputy Chief Representative, from 1959 to 1970, and Chief Representative, from 1970 to 1973, of the Commission of the European Economic Community in the United Kingdom, carried out by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 22 July 2005 at Georges Berthoin’s home in Paris. The interview was conducted by Étienne Deschamps, a Researcher at the CVCE, and particularly focuses on the following subjects: the early days of the ECSC High Authority, the High Authority’s relations with European industry and trade unions, the Association Agreement between the High Authority and the United Kingdom, the two failed British applications for accession to the Communities in 1963 and 1967, the empty chair crisis and the Luxembourg Compromise and the United Kingdom’s accession to the Communities in 1973.

In this film, largely based on family audio-visual archives, director Delphine Kiefer considers the professional experience of the Luxembourger Tony Rollman in the context of the economic reconstruction of Western Europe after the Second World War. A former Arbed employee, Rollman initially worked at the Luxembourg Ministry of Food Supply before becoming a delegate of the Luxembourg Government during Marshall Plan negotiations in 1947. That same year, he became Director in Geneva of the Steel Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). In 1950, he was involved in drawing up the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). In October 1952, Rollman joined the High Authority of the ECSC as Director of the Steel Division and remained there until his retirement in 1964.