On Sunday July 8, 1962, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and President Charles de Gaulle are side by side in the choir of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Reims. They attend a mass to close the Chancellor’s official visit to France. Six months later, they find themselves in Paris to sign the Franco-German friendship treaty.
To symbolically mark the rapprochement of the two nations, formerly enemies, Reims was not chosen at random. Alain Peyrefitte, Secretary of State for Information, asks General de Gaulle for the highlight of the German Chancellor’s official visit scheduled for July 2 to 8, 1962. De Gaulle replies: “Reims, of course, and the last day.. .”. It is here that the surrender of the German army was signed on May 7, 1945. Reims, martyred city of the First World War with its cathedral, almost completely destroyed by the Germans. This cathedral of the coronations of the Kings of France where Clovis was baptized.
Through this visit, Reims becomes the symbol of Franco-German reconciliation, a fundamental step in European construction. French and Germans need to give a new impetus to their relations, before expanding them to carry out the European construction. Since 2003, January 22 has become Franco-German Day. In 2013, President Francois Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel celebrated in Reims the 50th anniversary of the De Gaulle / Adenauer meeting. A symbolic way to renew Franco-German friendship.