AP PHOTOS: How bitter wartime enemies France and Germany built a friendship that underpins the EU
Thousands celebrate the announcement of Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allies in World War II, on May 7, 1945, at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on VE Day. (AP Photo/File)
PARIS (AP) — They were bitter enemies, seemingly destined to be perpetually at odds after fighting two devastating world wars less than 30 years apart.
A section of Berlin along Nettelbeck Strasse near Wittenberg Platz, called the “City of Death” by Berliners, is seen in April 1945. (AP Photo/Hans Martin Herloff, File)
A section of Berlin along Nettelbeck Strasse near Wittenberg Platz, called the “City of Death” by Berliners, is seen in April 1945. (AP Photo/Hans Martin Herloff, File)
German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, center left, hugs President Charles de Gaulle after signing the Elysee friendship treaty, Jan. 22, 1963, in the Elysee palace in Paris. (AP Photo/File)
German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, center left, hugs President Charles de Gaulle after signing the Elysee friendship treaty, Jan. 22, 1963, in the Elysee palace in Paris. (AP Photo/File)
President Charles De Gaulle, left, and his guest, West Germany’s Chancellor Konhad Adenauer, stand together in a car to review a parade of French and German troops at the Mourmelon training grounds near Reims, France, July 8, 1962. (AP Photo/File)
President Charles De Gaulle, left, and his guest, West Germany’s Chancellor Konhad Adenauer, stand together in a car to review a parade of French and German troops at the Mourmelon training grounds near Reims, France, July 8, 1962. (AP Photo/File)
Visitors stand by the remains of houses damaged during WWII ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to attend a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the massacre of 643 people by Nazi German forces, in Oradour-sur-Glane, southwestern France, Monday, June 10, 2024. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Visitors stand by the remains of houses damaged during WWII ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to attend a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the massacre of 643 people by Nazi German forces, in Oradour-sur-Glane, southwestern France, Monday, June 10, 2024. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP, File)
President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, left, talks to German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt inside Elysee palace on Feb. 4, 1977 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz, File)
President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, left, talks to German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt inside Elysee palace on Feb. 4, 1977 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz, File)
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, left, and President Francois Mitterrand meet at the Rocher de Dabo restaurant in the Vosges mountain range, in Dabo, France, July 19, 1983. (AP Photo/Jacques Langevin, File)
German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, left, and President Francois Mitterrand meet at the Rocher de Dabo restaurant in the Vosges mountain range, in Dabo, France, July 19, 1983. (AP Photo/Jacques Langevin, File)
President Francois Mitterrand, left, and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl hold hands as they listen to the national anthems during a French-German reconciliation ceremony outside the Douaumont cemetery near Verdun, eastern France on Sept. 22, 1984. (Pool Photo via AP, File)
President Francois Mitterrand, left, and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl hold hands as they listen to the national anthems during a French-German reconciliation ceremony outside the Douaumont cemetery near Verdun, eastern France on Sept. 22, 1984. (Pool Photo via AP, File)
Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and French President Jacques Chirac meet in Mettlach, southwestern Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2006. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and French President Jacques Chirac meet in Mettlach, southwestern Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2006. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as European heads of state gather for a group portrait during the European Summit, in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, March 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Jock Fistick,Pool, File)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as European heads of state gather for a group portrait during the European Summit, in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, March 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Jock Fistick,Pool, File)
President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shake hands with onlookers after Armistice Day ceremonies in Paris on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool Photo via AP, File)
President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shake hands with onlookers after Armistice Day ceremonies in Paris on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool Photo via AP, File)
German Capt. Thomas Trefzer, foreground left, looks to French officer Didier Neumann, foreground right, during a roll call of the German-French military brigade in the eastern German town of Weisswasser near the border to Poland on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1998. (AP Photo/Matthias Rietschel, File)
German Capt. Thomas Trefzer, foreground left, looks to French officer Didier Neumann, foreground right, during a roll call of the German-French military brigade in the eastern German town of Weisswasser near the border to Poland on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1998. (AP Photo/Matthias Rietschel, File)
French President Francois Hollande, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hug each other after their marathon talks in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Kirill Kudryavtsev, Pool, File)
French President Francois Hollande, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hug each other after their marathon talks in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Kirill Kudryavtsev, Pool, File)
President Francois Hollande, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel revive the Eternal Flame at the WWI Douaumont’s Ossuary, in Douaumont, northeastern France, Sunday, May 29, 2016, during a remembrance ceremony to mark the centenary of the battle of Verdun. (Mathieu Cugnot/Pool Photo via AP, File)
President Francois Hollande, right, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel revive the Eternal Flame at the WWI Douaumont’s Ossuary, in Douaumont, northeastern France, Sunday, May 29, 2016, during a remembrance ceremony to mark the centenary of the battle of Verdun. (Mathieu Cugnot/Pool Photo via AP, File)
President Francois Hollande embraces German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, as she arrives at the Elysee Palace, Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
President Francois Hollande embraces German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, as she arrives at the Elysee Palace, Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2015. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
A man rides his scooter on a bridge from France to Germany in Grosbliederstroff, in the Moselle region, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
A man rides his scooter on a bridge from France to Germany in Grosbliederstroff, in the Moselle region, Tuesday, March 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron hold the contracts after the signing of a new Germany-France friendship treaty at the historic Town Hall in Aachen, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron hold the contracts after the signing of a new Germany-France friendship treaty at the historic Town Hall in Aachen, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sign a guest book inside a replica of the wagon where the Armistice was signed in 1918, in the Clairiere of Rethondes, during a commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of the First World War, in Compiegne, north of Paris, France, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool via AP, File)
President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel sign a guest book inside a replica of the wagon where the Armistice was signed in 1918, in the Clairiere of Rethondes, during a commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of the First World War, in Compiegne, north of Paris, France, Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. (Philippe Wojazer/Pool via AP, File)
German soldiers march on the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade in Paris, France, Sunday July 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
German soldiers march on the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade in Paris, France, Sunday July 14, 2019. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, May 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Monday, May 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
But in the decades since French forces were among the victors of World War II, which ended in Europe with Nazi Germany’s surrender 80 years ago, neighbors France and Germany have built a powerful partnership that underpins the European Union.
With the EU’s largest economies, they’re frequently described as the motors of the 27-nation bloc and its stated goal of “an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” after generations of conflict.
Statesmen and women and ordinary people alike have worked since WWII to weave deep personal, political, economic, cultural and military bonds upon which French-German friendship has flowered where guns once roared.
French wartime hero President Gen. Charles de Gaulle was a pivotal early peacemaker, after fighting in both WWI and WWII.
His partner in reconciliation was Konrad Adenauer, who as West Germany’s first chancellor led its recovery from the Nazi disaster. Adenauer had himself been one of Nazism’s victims, spending several months in the hands of its murderous Gestapo.
The cooperation treaty they signed on Jan. 22, 1963, marked a fresh start. De Gaulle said it “turns the page after such a long and bloody history of struggle and fighting.” They sealed the deal with a tight embrace.
Other leaders bound France and Germany ever closer with more deals and poignant moments of symbolism. Remembrance of war’s horrors became an integral part of the partnership, so lessons from their shared history of tragic conflict aren’t forgotten.
Seventy years after WWI’s eruption, French President François Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl held hands on the former battlefields of Verdun, facing a memorial housing the remains of 130,000 unidentified soldiers.
As friends do, France and Germany have supported each other through recent calamities, too. Chancellor Angela Merkel sped to Paris to stand with President François Hollande in January 2015 when France was mourning the victims of a deadly assault by extremist gunmen on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
On a bridge that crosses the French-German border that once bristled with guns, words painted in the colors of the French and German flags capture how far the two neighbors have come.
“BIENVENUE” and “WILLKOMMEN,” they read.
Their meaning: Welcome.