On 30 October 1949, Dean Acheson, US Secretary of State, sends a letter to Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, in which he refers to the settlement of the German question and proposes that France take the initiative to establish the main lines of a common policy for the Western Allies with the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), so that the FRG can be integrated into Western Europe as soon as possible.

Robert Mischlich, a close collaborator of Robert Schuman, the French Foreign Minister, looks at the evolution of relations between France and Germany and particularly focuses on Schuman's relationship with Konrad Adenauer.

On 10 and 11 May 1970, in an interview given to journalist Georges Suffert, Jean Monnet, former Commissioner-General of the French National Planning Board, discusses the state of Franco-German relations in the aftermath of the Second World War.

‘Children, how quickly time passes’. On 8 April 1950, German cartoonist Beuth illustrates the slow progress of the negotiations on the question of Germany’s future and fears that the solution to the German problem will be postponed indefinitely. From left to right: Dean Acheson, US Secretary of State, Ernest Bevin, British Foreign Secretary, and Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister.

‘Conradin von Adenau: One day, my dear, you will hear me!’ On 17 March 1950, the cartoonist for the German daily newspaper Der Mittag illustrates the flat refusal of the French government authorities to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s plan for a union between France and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). At the entrance to the ‘France’ castle with raised drawbridge, Federal Chancellor Adenauer, depicted as a knight in armour, cannot join his maiden, Marianne, shown wearing a Phrygian cap.

On 23 March 1950, after the interview with Konrad Adenauer conducted by US journalist Joseph Kingsbury-Smith of the International News Service (INS), German cartoonist Ernst Maria Lang illustrates the idea put forward by the Federal Chancellor for the creation of an economic union between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and France.

On 23 March 1950, German cartoonist Peter Leger illustrates the plan of Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who proposed an economic union between France and the Federal Republic of Germany in an interview on 20 March 1950 with the US press agency International News Service.

Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (on the left) and French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman (on the right) working towards Franco-German reconciliation and cooperation.

In this summary note, the Economic Affairs Department of the French Foreign Ministry outlines the solution put forward by the French Government concerning international control over and separation of the industrial regions of defeated Germany.

Conversation between French President, Vincent Auriol, and High Commissioner of the French Republic in Germany, André François-Poncet, on the future status of the Federal Republic of Germany and its relations with the Allies.