The Franco-German Combine

The European Confederation was founded on the basis of warm ties between all of the European Allies in the Second World War, but the most important ties were those between the Great Powers of Europe -- Great Britain, Italy, and above all, the fragmented population of eighty million Germanophones scattered in five different states in the middle of Europe. The Bavarian and Austrian kingdoms resumed their traditionally friendly relationships with France following the removal of League forces in 1949, while the Saxon and Brandenburg republics sought to cultivate a reasonably friendly relationship with France out of fear of Soviet military might in Poland. These four states were too weak to challenge the reestablished status quo in central Europe, and consequently followed the lead of the European League Great Powers in international and European affairs.

The German Bundesrepublik, though, was quite different. The de facto successor to the German Reich, the occupation of the Bundesrepublik had been rather more thorough than in the other former homeland territories of the Reich, with anti-Nazi measures purging most of the pro-Nazi elements in government and industry. Beginning in the late 1940's, the Bundesrepublik embarked on a remarkable economic expansion which again brought it by 1960 to the status of the second economic power in Europe after France. As the Bundesrepublik was integrated into the European Confederation, Germany's neighbours worried about the possibilities awaiting a Germany left unattached to any of the other major European states. The French worried more than most, for a federation centered upon continental western Europe that did nothing to reconcile that region's two largest language groups -- Francophones and Germanophones -- would fail.

There had been no small measure of reconciliation between citizens of France and of the Bundesrepublik, and by the late 1950's, the French government had chosen to regard the Bundesrepublik as its major ally on the European continent. Many felt, though, that what was needed was a formalized Franco-German relationship within the European Confederation. In 1961, French and German Socialists issued a joint statement calling for the establishment of a Franco-German union within the European Confederation, thus entrenching the Franco-German alliance while giving direction to the process of European unification. To the surprise of both political parties, the French and German governments enthusiastically supported this idea, and the Franco-German State Treaty signed the next year created the Franco-German Combine.

The French Alsatian city of Strasbourg was selected as the site of Combine institutions. Though there were numerous joint projects between French and German ministries, the most prominent Combine institution was the Combine assembly, created in in 1964. Of the 220 Assemblypersons, 120 were French while 100 were Germans, reflecting the rough ratio of the larger French population to the population of the Bundesrepublik. Direct elections were held in France and Germany to select assemblypersons. At its height, the Combine Assembly could influence Franco-German monetary and domestic economic policy, pass binding resolutions on French and German national governments to consider reforms in the areas of human rights, and even influence the foreign policies of both Combine partners towards European affairs.

Since European unification in the early 1970's, the Combine Assembly has lost many of its legislative powers to the European Parliament in Paris, while the Combine itself has been largely absorbed into the European bureaucracy. Still, the Combine played an important role in preparing French and German public opinion for the advent of a united Europe, and helped to assuage old French and German nationalistic fears. Without the Combine, the process of European unification might have been much delayed.