La Grande Guerre et la réconciliation franco-allemande (1914-2014)

Abstract

On August 3rd, 2014, the commemoration of the beginning of the Great War was celebrated by a Franco-German ceremony in Alsace. This article puts into perspective the status of the Great War in the process of Franco-German reconciliation. It shows how, in the aftermath of the war, memory took divergent paths in both countries. Apart from the slowness of the cultural demobilisation, this “asymmetry of remembrance” made difficult and restricted the first initiatives of reconciliation. This asymmetry intensified after 1945 but at the same time series of symbolic gestures contributed to an integration of the Great War in the master narrative of the Franco-German reconciliation. A century after the beginning of World War I, beyond the official commemoration, cultural and memorial initiatives show that a shared “cultural memory” can eventually emerge.