Enabling Reconciliation Through the Recognition of Mutual Entanglement: The Emergence of a Franco-German Transnational Memory of the First World War

Abstract

This chapter analyses the diffusion of French and German memory discourses on the First World War before and after 1945. First, using the theoretical conceptualisation of the concept of collective memory developed by Maurice Halbwachs, it will be argued that the emergence of transnational memories is possible. Second, the diverging national frameworks of memory of the First World War are discussed: In France, a heroic nationalist framework was transformed into a memory focussing on the recognition of individual suffering and the rejection of militarism; in Germany, by contrast, the desire to overcome the “humiliation of Versailles”, including the war guilt question, was a shared feature of memory discourses across most political forces. Yet despite these diverging frameworks, in 1935 historians from both countries started a transnational diffusion process that led to the formulation of a transnational memory of Franco-German history to be disseminated through school textbooks. Although the national-socialist government put an early end to this initiative, in 1951 its core results were largely retaken by a new initiative towards developing a transnational Franco-German memory discourse, this time heavily supported by the political authorities from both countries.