Abstract
Despite a common origin – the Carolingian Empire – the relationship between France and Germany has long been tumultuous, especially from 1870 to 1945. During this period, the two countries fought no less than three times. Their history is not only tumultuous: it is also subject to ideological distortions. Nonetheless, they managed to agree on a common history textbook nowadays used by pupils in the two countries. This textbook is a symbol of the friendship that now ties France and Germany. It means they managed to get over their past discrepancies and to look at their stormy past through the same eyes. “The great lesson of this story is that nothing is set in stone - antagonisms that we believe are inscribed in marble are not eternal” said the French Ministry of Education Gilles de Robien when the first book was launched in 2006.
To understand how France and Germany managed to move from a post-war animosity to the common writing of a history textbook, we first need to ask oneself about the friendship that created the basis for this textbook. The focus of Part I will thus be to study which process led to the creation of what's called in Europe the “French-German couple”. Then we will see in Part II what is the common history textbook and what are its origin, goals and limits.
