The fact that France and Germany share the same fate of being Terror stricken could be a reason to look at the relation between the two countries, which should be done here.
Coming (in case of Germany partly) from one mediaeval state, Charlemagne´s Empire, which was split after his son´s death, the relationship of the two countries saw many conflicts, which turned to be more complicated with the rise of Prussia which didn´t come from that common heritage.
The French Revolution was very ambivalent for the relation in as far as it raised democratic hopes in some German circles which were widely liquidated during French occupation of great parts of Germany by Napoleon. This again strengthened tendencies for German unity, which was finally the result of the Prussian led victory of German states against France in 1871, a triumph which left deep scares in France´s collective memory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93Germany_relations
Both World Wars left France against Germany victorious but only because of strong Anglo-Saxon support. Long Nazi-German occupation during WW II has humiliated France (and saw a lot of collaboration on the French side). The more it might astonish how relatively fast France and the Western part of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) developed some sort of neighborly closeness and somehow friendship in post war times under De Gaulle and Adenauer. Not only the war tired youth gave additional impulses but a strong part did the hysteria about the (not real) danger of a Soviet invasion and the cold war. France was stripped off his official colonial empire (as happened to the Germans with theirs after WW I) though keeping (a disastrous) dominance in its former colonies. The war torn countries saw a close cooperation (also with other smaller countries) in basic industrial fields as favorable (German: „Montan Union“). The members of this European Coal and Steel Community ‚ECSC‘ (“ the six“: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany) joined the EEC, the competing body within Europe became the “European Free Trade Association” ( EFTA). As much as European powers wanted the BRD to be enshrined in supranational structures France was resisting to be too much absorbed by such developments. Likewise France was member of NATO (French: OTAN) but did not integrate into the military structures and built its own “Force de frappe”. .
France tried to keep close control especially of its former African colonies, to part of them (especially Togo) and their colonial henchmen German conservatives like Franz Josef had close links, at times combined with economic interests of Strauß´s entourage.
Germany and France had close military cooperation which was even directed at nuclear efforts (Strauß being Minister of Defense – 1956 to 1962 – was also very eager to get a nuclear option not purely based on the US, but were so in the end). By and large the German French relationship was complicated because of France being very skeptical about the US whereas Germany was depending on the US to a high degree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93United_States_relations
The end of the cold war and the collapse of the Soviet bloc confronted France with the reunion of the two German states which was only tolerated (with pains as well by Thatcher´s GB but supported by the US) with the perspective of Germany being enshrined in a new European currency: the Euro (which GB didn´t join).
1990 to 1994 saw a very different approach of France and Germany to an African topic. France (surely out of own interest and a strategy still independent from the US) helped 1990 to rebuke the terrorist attack of Kagame/Museveni´s US backed invasion attempt into Rwanda, German polititians were on the opposite helpful in preparing and covering the second invasion of the terrorist RPF into Rwanda and the horror which followed for the DR Congo by Uganda´s and Kagame-Rwanda´s invasions (http://tinyurl.com/kkpvcf7).
In the US invasion of 2003 into Iraq based on lies France and Germany acted together trying to keep them out of that act against international law.
Things turned almost fundamentally with Sarkozy coming to office. Whereas Germany´s capital interests (still mostly based on production and the US turning more and more to finance capitalism) differed so much from the US that some reservation towards the US are to be detected France being obviously sceptical of Germany´s growing economic power turned more towards the US. France turned back to the integrated NATO Command.
When Libya was attacked by the US and NATO, Germany didn´t support the „No Fly Zone“ in the UN whereas France together with GB were in total support. After Hollande came to office the integration into the US imperial designs continued which is very obvious in case of Syria and Mali. Possibly Germany has been scared into a more supportive position by obvious „False Flag“ manifested in the Bag with the not exploding bomb found at Bonn Main Station (2012). This was the reminder to the German government by the US: „Boys and Girl, think of how nicely German Governments were behaving when they were still sitting in Bonn!“ (https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/usa-unser-groser-bruder-und-willst-du-nicht-mein-bruder-sein/).
It is obvious: the French German relationship can only be understood to the full extend in context of the triangle France-US-Germany and from the question whether French and German national interests contrasting to US interests had to manifest themselves. This played an important role also in the Ukrainian crisis coming from the aggressive expansion of NATO to the East.
The determination of France and Germany to join with Russia in the efforts to calm down the Ukraine conflict, resulted in the Minsk II agreement. The leaders of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine had met from 11th to 12th February 2015 – without the US being invited! After that was finalized the British Prime Minister Cameron was to be seen in front of a camera almost foaming from anger and indicating the Anglo-American fury about those efforts. In deed France and Germany had come to the conclusion that the Ukraine conflict wasn´t in Europe´s best interest (after having helped the US to start the mess). How important the Ukraine „game“ is, see the Neocon Think Tank man George Friedman on the Ukraine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ablI1v9PXpI
Don´t mind the German subtitles!
So seeing the reactions of Cameron I made the prediction: „nasty things will come to France and Germany!“
Andreas Schlüter
WiPoKuLi 